Welcome back … again

A brief update

Hello & welcome back.

So I know I’ve said this a couple of times already but I took a little break from all things @parentingautism. I was trying to find the right balance between parenting 2 young children, doing my degree, being a wife, a friend, being social, keeping a house as well as everything else. I just lost my way a bit and I struggled to find the time to put aside to really concentrate on the blog. Truth is, autism is a huge part of our life as a family and it is so consuming that writing a blog can sometimes be the last thing I want to be doing. Some days, I just need to switch off and go into myself a bit. I have written a couple of blogs in the last few months but I decided not to post them. They were written during some bad days and although they were truthful and how I was feeling at the time, they were also very raw and deep and now I’ve had time to reflect, I have decided not to post them. All of my social accounts and emails were hacked at the end of the summer which resulted in me loosing a lot of my content and followers so that also knocked my confidence a bit but I am now trying to turn that into a fresh start and see where we end up.

Over the last few months whilst I’ve taken a step back from the blog, a lot of things have come very apparent to me in relation to autism. The ignorance unfortunately is still very much a real thing in this world, the system is still very much broken, not everyone who claims they want to help you is actually willing and a lot of work needs to be done to help all children who are neurodivergent. It still remains a huge goal of mine in life to impact the autism world in the best way I can and try and make change in any little way I can. I’m still trying to find a way that I can do that but I am considering big, life changing things to try and add to the movement that is happening in the SEND world right now. I am very aware that although our journey seems to have been going on for a while already, there is still so much to come and that journey will have a lot of downs when it comes to the system. That is what needs to change. Not our children or our parenting but those that have a moral duty to be doing the right thing to be helping and guiding all those who are neurodivergent.

So, a lot has changed within our family since I last posted a blog. We are currently in process of packing up our lives and moving back to the UK. As you can imagine, this is a stressful experience for anyone but adding in Billies needs, it has added to pressure a little. It’s a lot of change for her with furniture being shipped and the house looking different plus her toys going so there has been some adjusting. We have also decided to make the huge decision to no longer live in military housing. We will be moving into our own home when we move back. This was a huge decision that my husband and I went back forth on for a while but ultimately, it is absolutely the right decision for Billie and therefore our family. Billie needs stability and unfortunately, the typical military life can’t give her that. My husband is staying in the military and will do his upmost to be stationed as close to where our home is for as long as he can be but of course, sometimes military life doesn’t work how you want it too but that is something we will have to approach if another move is his next step in his career.

This leads me on to say, with us leaving, we have had to look at a new pre school for Billie to attend from when we get back up until her starting primary school in September. We went back to the UK for Christmas and we were lucky enough to be able to visit the school we have had our eye on, as well as their attached pre school. I loved it and they are already going above and beyond for Billie, asking what her needs are and trying to put things in place ready for her pending start after Easter. So fingers crossed, that transition is as smooth as it can be.

We are also starting to put things in place ready for starting the dreaded EHCP process. This isn’t something I’m looking forward to in all honestly as I haven’t once heard a good story about it however, I will endeavour to do everything I possibly can to ensure Billies needs are met- no matter how difficult and long the road may be. I’m sure a lot of future blogs will be me documenting this journey!

In terms of how Billie is doing at the moment - she is doing ok! Not much change in all honesty but she is coping well and we are making any adjustments that are needed as she grows and changes. She has had a bit of an up and down experience since she moved to her new class in September. Some ok days, a few brilliant days but also some really difficult days and times resulting in her not attending a few days. But, we continue to learn and adapt to try and ease her life as much as we can. We have had a very busy few months though with lots of exploring the island before we leave and also, spending time with some family that have visited which has been really amazing & of course, Billie handled that like a boss!

So that’s a very brief catch up. I will try and post regularly again with some more in-depth blogs about our new achievements, struggles and topics over the next few weeks/months as we all make a huge transition into our new chapter! So until then, stay happy , healthy & kind and continue to learn and spread awareness on all things ASD!

Speak soon, xo

Instagram: @parentingautism1