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Any parents of SEN kids around to hear me moan?

67 replies

Roscommonet · 17/03/2019 21:58

Just that really.

OP posts:
StillMedusa · 17/03/2019 22:02

Not a kid anymore but mine's 21... and some of it doesn't get any easier!
(He's lovely but getting any support is nigh on impossible now!) Moan away!

Nnnnnineteen · 17/03/2019 22:04

Listening!

cheaperthebetter · 17/03/2019 22:04

Go on then as I'm sick of bloody moaning (not about my SEN ds but at constant war with his seriously shit school he is at)... I'm all ears..👂🏻👂🏻

HumphreyCobblers · 17/03/2019 22:05

I am here!

moan away

hazeyjane · 17/03/2019 22:05

Moan away!

Roscommonet · 17/03/2019 22:11

I have three kids, all primary, all with some sort of SEN, ranging from ASD, to ADD, hypermobility, bit of deafness, terrible working memory, dyspraxia, dyslexia, and sensory issues and anxiety.

I hold it together fairly well I think, but tonight I’ve lost the run of the place. Child #3 has attention issues and is v anxious and demand avoidant. He also is incredibly messy. He’s not deliberately naughty, he just constantly picks things up and moves them. I’m trying to keep on top of the house and my DH has complained that he doesn’t have a clean shirt for the morning. I said they’re in the dryer and he said no they’re not, and I discovered child 3 had gone looking for underpants as he had weed in his others and decided he wanted a warm pair and dragged everything out of the dryer onto the floor of the utility room, where there were already other clean clothes waiting to be folded and put away (by me.)

So husband complains. I find him a shirt, and then discover child 1 has wet the bed. And the duvet. No other clean sheets available as I’m behind with the laundry after other accidents last week, including one where child 1 had hidden some pooey pants in the laundry and then everything that was washed, also smelled of poo so I had to wash it all again, and clean the washer and dryer.

Child 2 is thankfully dry but can’t really get dressed by himself and god love him, he’s tried, but he’s discarded every item he found that had a “tricky” fastening.

I had another look for clean sheets for the wet bed and found three pooey pull ups in the bottom of the airing cupboard. Angry

I’ve now put child 1 to bed in a sleeping bag, so at least he’s clean and dry and warm whilst i sort everything else out. They are mercifully asleep and husband is locked in his office still working.

I am so bloody sick of the laundry, and picking up after everyone. AngrySad

OP posts:
HumphreyCobblers · 17/03/2019 22:13

I am not surprised you are sick of it, it sounds extremely hard.

HumphreyCobblers · 17/03/2019 22:16

Also, your DH sounds annoying, he could go and sort his own shirt!

Roscommonet · 17/03/2019 22:16

Thankyou. It is. It’s so grindingly horribly tedious too.

Child 3 has a thing about socks, they have to be perfect but his definition of perfection changes all the time so we end up with loads of socks everywhere. It’s an anxiety thing. He’d rather be naked. But there are bloody socks everywhere.

OP posts:
YetAnotherBloodyNameChanger · 17/03/2019 22:17

With three additional needs primary ages kids you should tell your husband to sod off and find his own shirt!

HumphreyCobblers · 17/03/2019 22:19

yes to the tedium of endlessly repeating boring jobs...

There just comes a point where there are no reserves of patience left, doesn't there?

Roscommonet · 17/03/2019 22:19

My husband is deeply, deeply annoying. And, I suspect, autistic. He has deeply embedded routines. I bought him some really posh shirts for Christmas and have an arrangement where he just has to shove the posh ones in a little bag, and the dry cleaner on the corner takes them away and returns them, laundered. But husband, much as he likes his shirts done, has always “done a shirt wash” on a Sunday night and that’s what he’s tried to do tonight (he’s stressed about work so his routine needs become stronger urges) and it’s not gone well.

OP posts:
HumphreyCobblers · 17/03/2019 22:22

It seems that there is no one looking out for you OP.

I can get like this about meals rather than washing. All of the allergies and strong dislikes to add into the equation make food prep for my three dc and dh an absolute faffy nightmare. Sometimes I just want someone to cook me a bloody meal!

Roscommonet · 17/03/2019 22:25

Yep. I’m only here to flex and bend, and yet I swear none of them see it. If I ask my husband to do anything, and he’s focussed elsewhere, he sees it as a massive interruption to his train of thought and says “I can’t stand the interruptions! You only see things from your point of view.”

He was a particular arse this morning (and hungover) but apologised later.

OP posts:
hazeyjane · 17/03/2019 22:25

Gosh I find it hard enough juggling everyones needs and i only have one child with additional needs, and a dh who on the whole is pretty amazing.

You sound like you do an amazing job of keeping everything afloat, but it doesn't take much to tip it over when it is all on you.

I hope you get some opportunities for yourself. Wine

PickAChew · 17/03/2019 22:27

Your husband is a grown man who could have sorted his shirts out on Friday.

We only have the two and they're older, now, but we'd have fallen apart long ago without some semblance of teamwork. DH doesn't do much of the laundry (partly because he's only home when Ds2 is and Ds2 won't let us have the washer on!) but he does iron his own clothes and do other housework and we take charge of a child each generally keeping them out of each other's sight, so they don't become a 2 boy mass brawl.)

And on that note, is your H working out of necessity, or is he just avoiding his family?

UnderHerEye · 17/03/2019 22:29

It is bloody hard OP, the relentlessness of it all. And you are doing an awesome job!
Come on here and have a good old moan when you need to, it can be really tough when you don’t really have any other SN parents to talk to, sometimes it really does help to chat to other parents who just get it.

Flowers Wine Cake

Roscommonet · 17/03/2019 22:33

Phew this is so heartening to read!

He’s “in the zone” with a big project he’s working on, and is working crazy hours. Then he’s fit for nothing when he’s done.

He does not do any housework at all. Never has, doesn’t see it, rarely sees a need for it beyond the laundry.

We have a cleaner, fortnightly. I don’t want her here more than that as I find it stressful that I have to tidy up for her.

Husband does a demanding job with a long commute.

OP posts:
Neome · 17/03/2019 22:34

A bucket of empathy Wine and 👒 off to you for definitely being twice the woman I am.

A few random thoughts from my day

"Why does this room smell of poo?"
"Why is there [insert word of choice] all over the floor of this room? Does someone think it's my job to clean it up?"
"Why is there boiling hot tea all over the table, the floor and my leg and none in my mug !!!?"

Roscommonet · 17/03/2019 22:37

Ah yes Neome. Life’s eternal questions.

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PickAChew · 17/03/2019 22:41

If he was single, he'd still have to lift his head up, occasionally, to make sure he has clean, presentable clothes, food in the fridge, somewhere clean and tidy to work, etc.

cestlavielife · 17/03/2019 22:45

Hire a person who is happy to tidy up AND clean. Weekly.
Buy a tonne more cheap bedding from wilko or similar and send out to service washes.

Roscommonet · 17/03/2019 22:46

Service washes. How does that work? Do you have to sort it by colour etc? What if they’re really REALLY minging?

OP posts:
Roscommonet · 17/03/2019 22:47

I’ve sent sheets and duvets for service washes before. I always gave a false name!Blush

OP posts:
Catgotyourbrain · 17/03/2019 22:48

Oh Flowers
It’s so hard.

Does DH have a diagnosis? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and all that. I was talking earlier to DP about this and he doesn’t even remember how bad it was just a couple of years ago. Used to take about four hours to get all three DCs settled in an evening. DO now has a diagnosis of ADHD like DC1 - and I’ve been through therapy to deal with this all- but I think there’s more to come. Mine are between 10 and 12 now so we have a dialogue, and different problems.

Cleaner every two weeks will have you doing more clearing up. If you can afford it and can deal with it, try twice a week for a couple of weeks to clear backlog?

Also: do you have really good duvet protectors and mattress protectors + disposable bed pads? Worth investing in.

Again:
Flowers