You win some, you lose some…
In our continued attempt to broaden our son’s horizons and hopefully happen upon his “ next big thing” , we took our son for the first time to the Early Bird event at the Science Museum on Saturday morning.
Despite an early start, we had a boy who appeared to be in good spirits and was more than happy to leave the house at 7:30am for the tube station. Now, we had planned on driving down to the museum originally but given our car was in the garage and weren’t comfortable travelling into London in the courtesy car, we decided to brave the tube.
We had been on the tube with our son when he was much, much younger but hadn’t been for ages for fear of losing him or having a meltdown because of the sheer volume of people on the train etc. We needn’t have worried. Our son ADORED the train. Sheer glee on his face as we moved off from the platform and over excited jumping on the spot as the train went through tunnels, pulling up at a number of stations en route to our final destination, South Kensington. Despite the need to change trains part way through the journey, and the increased traveller numbers the closer we got into London, he remained spritely and happy at the sensations the experience was giving him. BUT that is pretty much where the laughter and giggling stopped and things took a bit of a turn.
Always expect the unexpected. This is true but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t creep up on you and give you a jump when it happens..Our happy chappy soon turned into an overstimulated bundle of stress and anxiety and the thought of having to walk anywhere else sent him into a tail spin. To anyone who doesn’t know any better it would have looked like we were dragging him under duress along the underground passage at South Ken when he started with the sit down protests but imagine a sack of potatoes, unwilling to move even an inch and for whom reasoning and bargaining does not work. We had nothing else in our locker. It was at this point that I realised that leaving the special needs buggy at home in favour of travelling light was a huge mistake. Despite the protests and with a fair amount of carrying involved (by my husband — who needs the gym, eh?), we persevered and made it to the Science Museum just after 8:30am.
Having made it to the front desk to have our names checked off the list, the meltdown started to take a real hold. The sight of the space man in his spacesuit and the other fantastic space paraphernalia that the Science Museum has to offer could not appease our unhappy chap. We proceeded to carry on walking with our son, desperately searching for something to break the cycle of torment and bring back our “funtime Frankie”. But no. In the end, we resorted to sitting on a bench and handing over the iPad; after what seemed like an eternity, I managed to log onto the free WiFi and low and behold our boy could be once again reacquainted with Fireman Sam and friends. It took a while for him to calm down from the peak of his meltdown mountain but Fireman Sam was there to save the day (again)!
Once peace had been restored and he started to seem calmer and less stressed, we started to wander again, taking in the fantastic sights of the various motor vehicles on display. He was quite happy to spot some familiar sights like giant Lego bricks (which he preferred kicking than building with) and pads and crayons to draw with.
He took some interest in the planetarium (although we didn’t wait to sit through a show) and liked some of the interactive displays along the way but the happiest he was was when he spotted the cafe on the ground floor had opened and swiftly made a beeline for the muffins!
Having filled his tummy with blueberry muffin and apple juice, he was ready to conquer the world again despite my husband and I feeling like we had already been up hours and were ready for a nap.
The journey home was pretty uneventful although he didn’t like the crowds and waiting on the platform for the train wasn’t great but as we headed back home on the tube and the crowds started to dissipate the further out into the sticks of surburbia we travelled, the happier he seemed.
Despite feeling a bit deflated after the mornings antics, we went on to have a nice day, visiting family in the afternoon and chilling (literally) in the garden. It is true what they say, you win some, you lose some. While for some it may have seemed like a bit of a disaster, I look upon it as a new experience which, despite bringing its challenges, was worth doing. We feel it is important to keep plugging on, not keeping him in his comfort zone of familiarity all the time (although its not a bad thing that he is comfortable) and to keep trying to push the proverbial envelope. We have another first in a few weeks time — Dawnosaurus at the Natural History Museum. Lets see what he makes of T-Rex and pals then…
We would love to hear of your experiences, good or bad, when you have tried new things with your SEN kids. Get in touch on Twitter@ SENFunLondon
