Today’s post is inspired by my slight heart attack/panic attack/ steam coming out of my ears (aimed at my 7 year old) experience from last Sunday! I was in Carter’s bedroom going through bins and bins of clothes trying to find any resemblance of a size 3 pair of jeans (I have kept all of Jaxon’s clothes in totes at the top of their closets) since we were having cooler weather and the closet and drawers were only stocked with last year’s sizes. Well, in walk my husband with a terrible look on his face. I was talking on the phone with my mom (yes, I always try and multitask if I can) and he firmly said, “honey, you need to get off the phone” I looked at him with the “ok just give me a minute look” and he repeated himself so I knew that I better get off and see what is going on.
I walked into the family room to find MY iPad (the only irresponsible thing I ever splurged on for myself) with a shattere screen. It was so shattered that if it did not have the sticky screen protector on it the glass would have all fallen out! Anger/fury/frustration/sadness/more anger poured out of me. I didn’t know what to do or say to Jaxon. He knew that he did something wrong and he was sorry, but being that he struggles with emotions he didn’t show it very well. Two seconds after he apologized for dropping my iPad on the tile floor he was already asking for his DS, a snack, and to go to Target and pick out a new toy.
So many things were running through my mind…where did I go wrong, why isn’t he more appreciative, why does he break everything, why doesn’t he feel worse about what he just did? I had to remove myself from the situation and have a moment to think about this. I don’t like to use his autism as an excuse, but in this experience I really think he lacked what he needed to truly “feel” sorry. I told him that he was going to have to do chores around the house to help me pay for a new one…that didn’t go over very well either, lots of wining and complaints, but he is definitely going to help out more around the house! Has anyone else ever dealt with a situation like this?