Ten Easy Things to Try

I’m often envious of families with typical kids. Life seems a lot easier. So whenever we can do something that everyone else does — get out of the house within half an hour, see a floor that isn’t completely covered with toys, I’m basically thrilled.

Photo courtesy of fab4chiky (flickr.com)

Find a couple of restaurants you can all enjoy. Done! Alex can eat in coffee shops and Chinese restaurants and pizza places, which I took on as a project years ago. We often have to buy a box of Saltines for him during the meal, but that’s fine. We can eat breakfast, egg rolls or a large pepperoni pizza like everyone else. As I said to Jeff during the difficult years of making this work, “What’s our life going to be if we can never go out for a casual meal?” A fair amount of effort; a huge pay-off.

Make dentist visits easier. We’re trying to practice dental hygiene at home as much as possible. Alex lets us use the Water Pik on his gums. I haven’t actually done this, but I keep thinking we should announce, Time to play dentist! Then we make him sit in a chair with his head tilted back while we say all the false things the dental assistant says (The dentist wants to count your teeth!) and we do a little brushing. The point is to make him sit there as long as possible, mouth open, while we Do Things and he Lets Us. Practically speaking, I think we’ll probably ask his doctor to prescribe a mild sedative that Alex can take before he goes for a check-up.

Pair down clothes (another suggestion from Ned). The goal: every time Alex opens a drawer he won’t have to paw through stuff he doesn’t like or won’t wear or (as Ned points out) is too small.

Make concrete plans and stick to them. This is Jeff’s idea, and I like it. We’ve had too many days that sprawled out of control as we got sidetracked by errands or picking up toys or other un-fun weekend activities.

Dress makes the man. For a few years, Alex has been enjoying hanging around the house in his underwear. This summer, I thought, hmmmm, not as cute as when he was 6 or 7. Step one: get Alex to wear some kind of indoor attire. We’re starting with cotton leggings and pajama bottoms. But really I’d like him to stop taking off his pants when he comes home. So the goal is for him to keep them on. We’ll start by having him change, and I hope we can gradually get him to change to … another pair of pants.

I’ve run out of room for easy, medicine-free things to try that can make life smoother, but I have more and I’m sure you do, too. Feel free to share tips so we can pass them on.