Bad Mummy

Poor Bethie. This morning she got up and told me that she was too sick to go to school again. She seemed just fine so off we all went. In assembly she said to me “See you in five minutes, meet you at the car,” to which I replied “See you at 3.30, have a nice day.” I went to the aide and the teacher and told them that Beth was trying to pull a swifty again and that there was nothing wrong with her. Off I went to art class, only to get a phone call at 11.45 to say that Beth had vomited in the classroom! Oh well never mind. I got most of my class over, just couldn’t go out for dinner with the girls. She seems bright as a button now of course.

Tuesday we went back to see Nerida. This time Beth was treated for salt mix and Bridie was treated for grains and wheat. There’s salt in bloody everything! No weet bix, no avocado, no watermelon. I knew that bread would be a problem. I had some chicken at home so I thought I could make chicken and chips but when I opened it it was off. Not happy Jan! In the end I did boiled eggs and they dipped their chips in there. Of course Beth couldn’t have salt so I needed something to disguise the blandness of chips with no salt. It seemed to go ok. In the morning they had fruit. When Paul had gotten home on the Tuesday I had asked him to get some drumsticks so I cooked them up and they had a type of ploughmans lunch so it wasn’t too bad.

Wednesday Beth was fine for school again so Bree and I went kitchen and bathroom shopping as I have to price things for the new house. It was rather amusing as the kitchen man mistook us for girls shacked up together. When he was discussing the master robes he was saying how you could have a his and hers section and I laughed and said “or just hers” as in men don’t need closets as much as women. He answered with “oh yes, or hers and hers.” We burst out laughing and said that no, it wasn’t for myself and Bree. He then asked if she slept out the back in the spare room so he clearly thought she was my bit of crumpet on the side! Talking later we had a laugh when we realised that people must have thought that I was the bossy bitch who wore the pants in our relationship. Each shop we went into I said “we want this, we want that” and if Bree made a suggestion that I didn’t like I would just say “No, this is what I want so that’s what I’m having!” People must have thought I was such a cow!

Yesterday was Sensational Kids day. One of Beths aides came along with us. We had good sessions and I think the aide got something out of it. The O/T went through some deep pressure techniques as well as some activities to rev Beth’s engine up. They were good examples for school. Another suggestion was to have a therapy ball as a chair with a tyre to hold it in place. This would give Beth posture and balance without rolling around everywhere. And she’d have to keep her feet on the ground.

Rod’s session was a good one too. They took it in turns to do sentence writing again. First Rod told Beth to write 3 sentences about me. I came in after a few minutes and she had written something like : My Mum loves to give me hugs. Her job is a writer. She likes to cook meals. At first she had started the second sentence with ‘my mum’ again and Rod had said it had to start with something else. She then went to write the same in the 3rd sentence and same again. I thought they were good sentences but of course I’m not sure what to look out for. They were all factual which showed that she didn’t use her imagination. There was also no elaboration. He then asked her to do 3 made up sentences about me. Beth said something like : My mum doesn’t love to give me hugs, Her job is a busdriver, she likes to ride camels. (Not what she wrote but you get the idea.) The point was that she still used the same formula, not trying new sentences at all.

Rod then wrote 2 sentences. Beth wanted him to write about a duck. He wrote : The duck hates swimming in the pond yesterday. The pond was all dirty. He asked Beth what was wrong and she honed in on the word ‘hates’. Then she changed it to ‘loves’. She didn’t get that the tense was wrong. Rod then gave her 3 words to choose from, hated, hating, hates, and she correctly chose hated. She couldn’t really explain why though. He said that her spoken language in this situation wasn’t a problem but that her written comprehension  was. It was really interesting to watch and get ideas. I spoke to Beth’s teacher this morning and she seemed keen to come at one stage too.

Bridie had the psychologist coming tonight. Talking wise she’s been doing fantastic since going to see Nerida. Behaviour wise still not so good but we’re working on it. I went to a thermomix party last night and fell in love with it. They’re a kitchen device that does everything from making sorbets, chopping food, making bread, even milling your own flour. At the demo they made bread, sorbet, dip, risotto and custard, all in the same bowl (though not at once of course!) It was amazing. For something like the elimination diets that I’ve been doing with the girls it would be fantastic. For somebody like me who has no idea how to read food packets and know what’s good and what’s not it’s going back to basics using the raw ingredients. I love to cook so I’m thinking of getting one.

Have a good weekend everybody. By the background sounds I think I have a bucket to empty. Happy days!

About Sarah

Mother of an autistic child wanting to write about my personal experiences
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