The Holidays and Your Intense Child

The holiday season is here, and with it comes a break in the schedule, extra activities and parties, and lots and lots of craziness. Couple that with the unreasonable expectations we place on our children {intense or not} during this time of the year, the holidays can spell disaster for the intense child.

And exhaustion for the parents of intense children.

 

How can we help our intense kiddos navigate the choppy waters of holiday gatherings, annoying cousins, cheek-squeezing aunts, indulgent grandparents, and over-stimulation at every turn?

With patience, love, and a game plan.

It’s really important that we parents of special needs kids know them really well, respect their needs, and take the time to focus on what is in the best interests of our children. And we need to realize that our children’s needs may not look the same as another parent’s kid’s needs.

And that’s okay.

Coming Up With a Game Plan

Over the next four days, I’m going to help you come up with a game plan to manage your child’s intensity during the holidays. I’ll walk you through step by step, and by Friday, you’ll have a plan in place – designed with your child’s help – that you can use to make this holiday season the best ever for you and your challenging child.

Our game plans may look different from house to house, and child to child, but they’ll all have something important in common – they’ll be rooted in love and mutual respect. And with that love and respect will come success… Maybe not every time, but certainly more than you’d have seen without it.

In This Series

We’ll work together, you and I, with our children by our sides, to identify possible tripping points, scenarios we may face that might be challenging, and outline positive reactions and strategies for diffusing unpleasant situations. We’ll also come up with a bag of tricks and tips for managing those really intense moments.

Over the course of the week, we’ll:

• define intensity, what it looks like in general and in our own home, and pinpoint specific triggers.
• make sure the whole family is on the same page so that everyone is working together to ensure success for all.
• role play scenarios and holiday scenes, empowering our kids to know what to expect and come up with solutions that work for everyone.
• pull together a “bag of tricks” to take along to parties and outings.

 

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