Last Week was back to school week in our community. How exciting, right? Not if you have a child with learning differences. It can be an incredible time of stress. Mom: you have had a lot of stress. You have spent the summer managing schedules for your child. It lacked the structure of the school year which causes a lot of stress on your child who doesn't function well outside of a very organized life. Mom your stress is high during the summer because it's exhausting to manage the activities, your child's anxiety, issues with the siblings and the rise of your anxiety.
Yay, it's time to go back to school. This brings different duties that you haven't had during the summer. There is shopping for school supplies, lunch food, clothes, and shoes. There are sign ups for extra-curricular activities at school and in the community. There are meetings at school and new therapy schedules. Children need to get on an earlier bedtime schedule. There are routines to orchestrate. Morning routines, evening ones. What are the expectations for completing homework. Are you feeling overwhelmed yet?
I have forgotten one thing that often puts us moms into meltdown mode. It is managing a child's anxiety as he adapts to all the new things that come with back to school time. Transition to a new teacher, a new schedule, different classroom routines and the general demands of school. This includes a lot of auditory information. There is a need for independence and attention. The list goes on and on. Not only does a mom try to help a child "calm down", she also picks up the emotional pieces when the anxiety is out of control. If the child shows anxiety at school through behavior, she worries, prays and deals with the school. The bottom line, mom is taking on more stress than she was meant to have. Back to school can be really HARD!
I want to be the first one to give you permission to have a back to school meltdown. For me, I needed to have a good old fashioned cry to get rid of my pent up stress. As a mom, I have a tendency to take on my child's stress. I have to get rid of it. I'm not encouraging you to plan a meltdown, but if you do, it's understandable and you have a friend here who understands!
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