The morning started much better than anticipated. All 3 kiddos were awake, moving around, interacting with each other in friendly manners.
Less than 2 minutes later, 1 child is crying, 1 child is anxiously trying to parent his siblings, and 1 child is yelling threats, throwing things, and screaming at the top of her lungs. How did this happen, you may ask? I made one grave mistake. Are you ready for it? My mistake . . .
I went to the bathroom.
You wouldn’t think this would have been a mistake. You would think that NOT going to use the toilet would have been a bigger mistake. But, I forget that even though all of my children are chronologically out of the toddler years, emotionally, one of my children still frequently needs the same level of high-intensity, eagle-eyed supervision as she did when she was 1 ½.
Like a toddler, my spectrum-y kiddo can fool you into complacency by being all nice and sweet, but then flip in seconds.
Like a toddler, my sensory kiddo can seem calm and put together one moment, but then scream from hunger, fatigue, overstimulation the next.
Like a toddler, my spectrum-y kiddo can play and share nicely, only to swipe the toy away from your hands and scream in your face that she never wants to play with you again because she’s been offended somehow (like maybe saying you wanted to call the baby doll Frank instead of Prince).
And so, my household can turn from Little House on the Prairie to Lord of the Flies in 0.9 seconds flat. This especially happens when I’ve stepped away from the room and felt falsely confident that the peace would continue, but it also can happen right before my very eyes. Calm to chaos and there’s nothing I can do about it.
I’ve got no words of wisdom about this. Just the quiet comfort of knowing that if this happens in your household, you’re not alone. And, maybe buy a giant pack ‘n play for your fringy kid, so you can sequester them and go off to pee in peace. Or, you can take Jon’s suggestion and buy a giant pack of Depends, so you never have to leave the room again.