Impatience

I want to talk about impatience as this is something I’ve been constantly working on but continue to struggle with.

I don’t think I go through a day where I don’t have this feeling at least once. Impatience and autism are a very bad mix. When autism is involved, you have to be able to wait longer, do things differently and generally just have more time to deal with the regular issues that arise during the course of a day.

Without autism in my life, I would hate to see what my impatience levels would be. With autism, I feel as though I have improved by leaps and bounds in this area but I must admit I still struggle.

This time of year is especially hard when you feel like you have to do more things to get ready for the season in addition to what is already part of your day.

Our son usually gets up at 7:30 am and I drive him to school at 8:30 so he basically has an hour to get fully awake, eat his breakfast and get dressed.

This morning I was feeling anxious because of other things going on in our house (yes, it’s not all about our son!) I didn’t sleep well and I just felt overwhelmed. He came downstairs but it was taking him forever to eat. The frustration in me was slowly building as I knew we had to leave as the weather was terrible so I had the extra task of cleaning the snow off the car and shoveling the driveway.

Anyway, I just kept telling him to hurry up and eat a bunch of times. I could hear the frustration in my own voice and it was making me crazy.

I had to stop, take a breath and focus and remind myself of what was really important.

So I refocused my mind and tried to be kind and loving instead.

When you have autism in your home, you have to constantly make schedule adjustments and changes so that your family dynamic can stay in tact.

Frustration + autism = chaos and panic, but

Frustration + stopping and evaluating, taking and breath = readjustments and hopefully kindness.

Choose to be kind today.