Changing routines can be hard for Jojo. Sometimes it goes smoothly, but sometimes it can trigger many behavioral issues.
We had a change in the church routine last week.
Typically, after church, Jojo will go and jump in the bouncy house and go down the slide in the gym with all the other kids. He absolutely loves it.
But sometime the week before, the bouncy house had broken and they didn’t have it set up after service.
Jonny had choir practice for an hour and we had to wait for him to finish. Jonah was left without his bouncy house and a gym-full of hyper kids running around without rhyme or reason and NOT bouncing on a bouncy house.
Jojo wasn’t sure what to do. He HAS gotten better in this regard. Previously, he would cover his ears and start hitting kids and getting frustrated that they weren’t “doing” what they normally do.
He didn’t do any of that. He started running a lap around the church (as is his norm when he is overstimulated). I followed him.
Then he found some alphabet blocks (about the weight of a matchbox car) that weren’t being used. Caught up in the mass hysteria, he decided to wind up and hurl them grenade-style across the gym into tables full of strangers.
I tried to redirect him, but he continued to throw blocks left and right. Dinner-goers were having to duck and cover as projectiles sailed into their tables, meals, and their person.
Of course, I apologized profusely, but I got some “looks” after that. I would have explained about autism and how it’s a sensory issue, causing the behavioral issue from a change in his normal routine, but Jonah was on his way to get more blocks to fire into other tables and I was just in “damage control mode.”
In the end, I decided I just needed to get rid of the blocks. He was fixated on throwing them and I wasn’t having any success in redirection.
I found a most of them and hid them successfully but Jonah found others. I tried to redirect him by holding him in my lap and tickling him but it just wasn’t working well.
So there I was sitting down by myself, Jonah was draped over my shoulder trying to sit on my head while simultaneously squirming out of my grasp, and I’m just grateful he’s not throwing blocks and that I can sit for 5 minutes.
“You’ve got something stuck on your head there.”
I hadn’t noticed, but someone had come up and sat down next to me. He noticed I was having a tough time, and explained that he also had a son on the spectrum.
It was a breath of fresh air. Someone else “understood” what was going on. Someone understood that It wasn’t just “bad parenting” causing my child to behave badly…
You don’t know how much of a relief it is to find another person from your “tribe” when you are right in the thick of things.
We briefly chatted before Jonah finally broke free and made for the final few blocks to throw. I apologized as I ran after Jojo and he told me to ‘not even worry about it.’
Luckily, Jonah didn’t try to throw anything else after that.
By then, most of the other kids had left and Jonny would be done in a few minutes.
Jonah calmed down, ate a snack, (he was a bit HANGRY as well) and played nicely until it was time to leave.
Today we went back to church. They had a NEW bouncy house up. One with TWO slides!
Jojo was in HEAVEN.
Jonah had so much fun, we ended up going to two different services… just so he could play on it again.
A new slide. A new routine. A new adventure.
Thanks to the Ausome Dad at church last week who had my back.
Thanks to our church who serve food and run bouncy houses for the kids after every service, and are so graciously accommodating to us.