[Do you or your kiddos deal with this? Any insights?]
“Daddy, Change your clothes!!”
There are certain outfits I wear that can trigger Jonah’s anxiety.
It seems they are random in nature, but If he sees me in one of many particular shirts, he will yell at me to change my clothes.
Over the course of the pandemic, Jonah’s anxiety reached an all-time high and literally any little thing could and would set him off. And by “set him off,” I mean he would go into a full melt-down…
Any little thing…
…From lights being turned on, to cars following our vehicle, to stopping at red lights, or brother sitting on the couch, and even Daddy wearing certain clothes. Literally any little thing.
It was AWFUL. And it was ALL THE TIME.
Over the last several months, Jojo’s anxieties have gradually subsided and he is okay now with ‘MOST’ things that used to bug him…
Except for my clothes.
I have no idea why he still has such an aversion to certain clothes I wear.
My theory is that Jonah has a memory of specific anxieties that set him off in the past and has assigned those memories to the clothes that Daddy was wearing that day.
“DADDY, CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES!!”
In any case, I have been forced to relegate some of my favorite comfy pandemic clothes to the donation bin.
Just part of our ‘Ausome Life.’
But you know what?
Just a few years ago, there would have been no way for me to guess that “my clothes” were the main reason for Jojo’s anxiety.
And even with all of that, the fact that Jonah was still able to communicate what was bothering him is a HUGE WIN.
I’ll take it.
#smALLVICTORIES
#Ausome