Something had to give....

A few weeks back I made a very important decision that I had been considering for a long time.

I decided to apply for a career break from my job.

Since the back end of last year, my caring role has become pretty intense.

DS is becoming increasingly challenging, major meltdowns were becoming much more frequent and to me his behaviour was coming close to danger point. Something had to give.

My working hours fit around the school day so after seeing him off to school I would drive to work and as soon as finished my shift DS would arrive home so it would be a case of work finished and straight into DS with no respite in between and I was struggling.

As a result of this building up, everything else seem to suffer - friendships, relationships to name a few but as us Mums do, we limp on and try to hold everything together the best we can.

I knew that I needed to work on DS behaviour by implementing strategies to encourage positive behaviour, I know this takes times and lots of energy and effort and I know I need support to help me to achieve this.

I also knew that deep down, work would have to go on the back burner for a while.

So eventually I applied for and was granted a 12 month career break whilst I took the rest of my holidays and I have to say that some behaviours DS was displaying have now disappeared! I see him to school and by the time he comes home I'm ready to tackle anything he throws at me!

I feel much more in control and I'm putting all that I have into working with him, it will be a long road but one I'm ready for. We will get there no matter how long it takes but I need to do this without any other distractions.

I've looked into a desensitization programme and am in the process of trying to get us booked on one as this would resolve a lot of his challenging behaviour. The programme would work on noises that DS is very sensitive to resulting in him lashing out. Its a 12 month programme and very expensive if paid privately, although some children's charities will subsidise this cost.

Since finishing work, I'm definitely less stressed which he seems to be picking up on as happy Mums means happy kids and that's exactly what I want the little superstar to be!

It goes without saying that DS is and will always be my absolute number one priority, his happiness and wellbeing means everything to me and I'm prepared to sacrifice practically anything for him so if that's means not having as much spare cash around then so be it because some things are much more important to me than financial gain.