Trying to dress a square peg.

‘This is my favourite part of the day!’…..said no autism Mum ever…

In essence, it’s like trying to dress a Tasmanian Devil on speed….

First challenge is to get him upstairs, when we’ve finally convinced him to go upstairs he runs straight into my bedroom and dives under the bed covers. So I then drag him by his feet out of the bed, all the while he thinks it’s just a big old game and he laughs hysterically.

Second challenge….so we’ve got him in his room….Mummy’s smart and got all his clothes out ready. I put one arm around his waist, get him undressed using one hand, then try to put his clothes on. Woe betide Mummy if she can’t reach an item of clothing without letting go of Edward because then we’re back to square one and Edward has run out and dived back under our bed covers again…

We’ve enlisted the help of Matthew for various strategies….Matthew gets dressed in Edward’s room to show him how it’s done, tries to make it into a race or puts Edward’s liquid timer on and encourages him to get dressed before the timer runs out….We have had some degree of success with this but only erratically and only when Edward wants to play ball. We have also tried putting his clothes in a box with a lid and getting him to take them out and put his pyjamas back in. Finally, we’ve tried a visual timetable…’Edward, look 👀…..breakfast, get dressed, school.’ ‘NO!!! I don’t want to get dressed!!!.’ *runs off….🙄

Third challenge….I know what you’re thinking….surely when he’s dressed that’s it? Oh no…he then proceeds to try and pull them off….so I’m afraid I’ve resorted to bribing him with some Maltesers and by the time he’s eaten these he’s forgotten that he wanted to take his clothes off. Phew!!

All of this before I go to work, and yes it is draining as every day is the same….but I live in hope that ONE day it will get easier….

MomOfTwoLittleGirls