Even After 4.5 Years, It's Still Exhausting

[summit1983]

@disciple2011 I think we all need to pitch in and book out a daycare for a day, drop the kids off, and then go back to someone's house and take a nap. Just snack, nap, then get up to snack some more before taking another nap.

You aren't alone in the world of neuroatypical children. I am neurotypical and so is my kiddo, so if you ever need a mama friend that understands, you just let me know. Those struggles are in a whole different realm of struggles, and sometimes you just need to choose someone's ear off that gets it.

 

[annache]

@summit1983 I'm so sorry. It sounds like you are just wiped out emotionally.

Do you have any family or friends that you trust to watch him? You need some time to recharge and take care of yourself.

I'm the mom of a 15F. She's on the spectrum has ADD and severe depression/anxiety. I feel where you are at right now. I would try to talk to those who were supposed to be my support system and they would be derisive and dismissive about anything I said because they couldn't see it and didn't live with us to see how things really were. I felt like I was going out of my mind with exhaustion and not knowing where to turn for help.

If you ever need a sympathetic ear or want to have a video chat and glass of wine/cup of tea with a friendly face after lo has gone to bed, I'm always around. We need friends that understand and are supportive of us.

 

[summit1983]

@annache I really appreciate your offer so much, and I honestly might take you up on it. I'm actually going to sit down with my son's father at the end of the day and chisel out and exact schedule for how this school year is going to go. I won't bore you with all the details, but I've been in the house that I purchased for about a year now, and I purchased it specifically because my son said that he wanted to be closer to his father, so here we are. I'm not near family and I don't have friends in the area, but my ex-husband and I did decide that starting with this school year we were going to get on an alternating weekend schedule now that things have kind of simmered down (we both bought houses at the same time and with covid and the school year and the kiddo being in school and then not being in school...it was just a lot and we hadn't worked that out yet up until this point).

But, I have told him that we need to sit down this evening and hammer out that schedule because he is near family and grandparents on his end, but I'm not anymore. So those weekends are going to be the only times, outside of my son's holiday breaks, where I'm going to get any span of time that is for myself that won't require me to be an on-call outside support system, if that makes any sense at all.

Seriously, though. I think I'm going to take you up on that video call and wine offer. Please feel free to shoot me a message at any point in time, because the tribe needs to stick together. Single parents go through way too much to go through it alone.