An Exhausting Day in India

It's been one of those days.


We've been researching India lately... reading books on India from the library, watching travel documentaries, listening to Bollywood music. Today the plan was to have fun dressing up in saris and turbans, find out about Hinduism and have an India themed dinner.


Things didn't quite go to plan. Small but important things got us sidetracked during the day and then Shmoo had a major meltdown in the afternoon. Major meltdown. As in close to 3 hours of shrieking, screaming, crying, hypochondria, slamming doors, threatening his brothers, calling me names (hideous, stupid, idiot etc), and throwing things around. Somehow I managed to stay calm despite having heaps to do, 2 other kids to look after and dinner to make (with the OH in Burnie for the afternoon). Mostly calm anyway. The only time I yelled at him was when Beanie was in immediate danger of being injured.


The OH was home for the last half hour or so of the meltdown. The only way we could get Shmoo to snap out of it was to bribe him with the Dyson vacuum catalogue that the OH had picked up for him at Harvey Norman. Shmoo has a bit of a love/hate relationship with vacuums. He is absolutely terrified of them, panics if the vacuum comes near him at home, screams if we try and walk past a display at the shops. But he is also intensely fascinated with them, I think it's his way of trying to work through his fear of them. He will analyse them in catalogues, compare the different types and their parts, and try and figure out how they work and what each part does. And then he goes through phases of drawing vacuums. He can sit at the table for hours every day, for days at a time, drawing page after page of vacuums in great detail. So the vacuum catalogue was a good distraction for him.


Funnily enough, in the middle of Shmoo's meltdown the phone rang. I nearly laughed when the woman on the other end said that she was from the Tasmanian Autism Spectrum Diagnostic Service. I was trying to focus on what she was saying but it was kinda hard with Shmoo screaming in the next room and the loud thuds as hard objects hit the bedroom wall. Actually I did laugh when she asked if I felt the assessments were urgent. She could hear Shmoo's meltdown. I said "Um, at the moment it feels very urgent."


I don't know what to do with him when he has such intense meltdowns. It goes so far beyond a typical tantrum. I'm much better at putting on an calm outward appearance myself these days but it takes it's toll. I feel so frustrated and so helpless. It's so physically and emotionally exhausting. Why is it so hard to get any kind of help once they're over 6?!