Hi everyone I just wanted to let you know how everything went yesterday. Everything went pretty good on a A to F rating I would give it a good B+
The kids did pretty good my Son who is 13 said he wanted to go home at 2:30 PM and we got there at 1:00PM but I realized he was just obsessing about his Vedio games at home. He wanted to bring his PSP but I would not let him. I ended up destracting him and he got into the Disney Spirit after a while. We had a total of 3 meltdowns but they were not too bad. We had to use the GAC a little more then I would have liked to because I am trying to teach them to wait because they are getting older but the crowds along with high temps made there senses overload. We had about 100 great experiances and maybe a few bad ones with cast members. I think the 100 out wieghed the bad ones so I was pleased over all.
My Daughter was having more problems then my Son Yesterday which is not normally the case. She has ADHD with sensory issues and my Son as Aspergers. He seems to be doing much better the older he gets. My daughter was very intemidated by the large crowds. Anytime anyone came near her she completely freaked out. We went to roger rabbits cartoon spin and they have you wait in the fastpass line with the GAC we had (one with the arrows) Which I prefer fast pass entrance on most rides but i just had a bad feeling when we first started waiting in line and my daughter just fell to the ground and covered her ears and started screaming. It was not the line that bothered her but people were pushing close together that were on the outside of the building to get inside where the air conditioning was and it was just too much for her. I picked her up and she was screaming and kicking and everyone looked at me with "THAT LOOK" you know the one that you are a terrible parent and you need to spank your kid. The cast member on the ride that let us into fastpass because we showed them the GAC asked if she fell or hurt herself. I explained to him that the line was too much for her and she just could not take all the people surrounding her. He asked if we wanted to go through the exit and I told him we might come back later but right now she just needs to chill out for a bit. We ended up eatting dinner then going back to Roger Rabbit and the cast member we talked to was no longer there so we went to the exit and asked a new cast member that had no idea what happened earlier if we could come in this way because my daughter is having a hard time with lines right now and he said. "All guest with GAC need to go through fast pass." I said "okay" and started to walk away and She flipped out because she could not ride and he then realized that she had some issues and said. "Why don't you guys wait over on the tires for 10 mins (which was the wait time for fast pass) and I will let you on as soon as the wait time is up." To me that was perfectly reasonable and beyond what he HAD to do. I then explained to her that he was being very nice becasue we are not supposed to go this way and just talked to her about it. He noticed I was not getting anywhere with her so he got us right on (maybe three minutes later) I thought he handled the situation very well and I was very pleased that they went beyond what was nessisary to do. We went on the ride and she was tramatized because of all the lights and sound but that is another story LOL. It is funny that she had such a problem with that paticular ride because she loved Space Mountain. To me space mountain was loud and fast and the flash at the end freaked me out so I know it must have freaked out the kids.
I know a lot of you here have kids with sensory issues and I wanted to ask you, Are there certain days or even moments where you kids just totally freak out? Even if they have been on a ride before over and over do they have a day where they just can't handle that same ride? My babies were diagnosed very late (about a year ago for daughter and son is still having test done) so even though I was very in tune with their needs when they were really small and I knew they were picky about certain things all these diagnoses and labels are new to me and I am still learning. I always knew deep down that my son had some form of autism because when he was young he was always flapping his hands, had problems looking at people when he talked to them, he bit all of the collars of his shirts off, would only wear certain clothes, and was obcessed with ether Star Wars, Batman, or vedio games. My daughter is just very very hyper and has sensory issues but does not have nearly the amout of problems as her brother. In fact she has a 4.0 GPA and is very social. But whatever you do, don't step into her space or scare her by saying "boo" you will know that you did something wrong.
Both of the kids are my world and even though they are not biologically mine I am "mom" to them and they are my kids. I just need some advise. I know this is a Disney board but I have noticed there are lots of great parents here that have been through a lot of what I am going through. So any advise is greatly appreciated. Please excuse my spelling I am the worlds worst speller. Thankyou in advance for any advise.
JenJen
