I find Easter to be a tough holiday for special needs family. There is no down time built into the schedule to help children handle the novel events of this weekend. Schools don't often give Good Friday off in our culture. That means everything must happen over the Easter weekend.
What happen's if you have a child who can't handle a Saturday morning Easter egg hunt with 200 other children? Then there is church on Easter morning. There are the new clothes that grandma sent, a different church schedule for Easter. My church always has a big special program for Easter Sunday that doesn't resemble the typical Sunday school that occurs every other week. Then there is a lunch and Easter egg hunt at your parent's house. With that comes all kinds of things that create sensory overload. After this, it's time to go to the other grandparent's house, everything is novel and unpredictable. Oh, I forgot to add lots of sugar from Easter baskets.
This sounds like a disaster to me. I have lots of experiences with holiday disasters. I am going to suggest what we finally decided to do. I must preface this by saying my husband is a lead pastor so our Easter was very focused on the events at church. We cut out Traditional Easter dinner. It was just too much for us if we wanted to avoid meltdowns on Easter. If your family wants a traditional dinner then it could be scheduled for Friday or Saturday. Your children might be able to handle the family gathering and the novel church schedule if they are on different days. Another option would be to go to church on Saturday night if your church has that option.
Making these changes will take some advocating on your part. If your extended family wants to do everything on Easter then you may need to advocate by telling them when you are coming and it will be a shorter time this year. Advocating doesn't require that you defend your choice. Sometimes it just means you make choices that are in the best interests of your immediate family. There will be some that are gracious and understanding. Some will not be. That is a reality that we all have with extended family. There will always be someone who does't get it. That's ok. It's also ok for you to set a schedule that is best for your children and spouse.
Posted with Blogsy