My name is Stacey and I have the great honor of joining Blissfully Domestic as a weekly contributor. To say that I am nervous to post my first article here, would be like saying that the Grand Canyon is big.

Understatement!

I have been a pediatric Occupational Therapist for 12 years. I have worked alongside families and other professionals, in an effort to help children become, and feel, successful. Each in their own special way!

My experience is varied, but I have a special fondness for children on the Autistic spectrum or with sensory regulation disorders. Truthfully, it is hard to show favoritism. I enjoy them all!

Now many of you are likely experts in your own right. You might be the parent of a child with special needs. There are many people out there who know just as much, if not more, than I do.

And then you always have that Mr. Know-It-All. Google.

Each week, I hope to simply share something that might make your child’s life a little easier to enjoy; despite the rough days. I might write about a type of treatment, activity ideas, checklists to help identify problems, or general goals for different stages of development.

What do you want? Please let me know, either by commenting here or emailing me at arbonnebystacey (at) hotmail (dot) com. Share your needs, your ideas. I want my articles to be of service to you!

In order to help you get to know me a bit, I thought I would share with you a modified reprint of one of my first articles and blog posts at my own place.

It is important for you to know that I am just like you! I don’t give out advice lightly! As a parent, I want what I say to be relative to our real life adventure!

Quakes, Caps, and Revelations

Choose your battles wisely, especially when it comes to your kids! I have to do that at home. It is what I emphasize with my families dealing with their own child’s low tolerance for anything different or new.

Let’s talk about a few battles.

Quakes

A favorite shopping snack for my kids. Yours may be different, BUT you KNOW what I am talking about AND what it means for your shopping experience! When I have to take the kids to the store with me, it needs to be a trip with purpose and efficiency.

No trying on shoes or catching up on People in the book section while waiting for your pictures to develop!

Quakes- mini rice cakes that are actually yummy and don’t cause you to feel like you have gravel in your mouth! Preferably ranch but cheddar will do. A small bag! For fear that once they add liquid, their tummies will swell up and explode! Shared by both siblings, so you can work on something virtuous along the way! Maybe you call it indulgence or bribery or whatever. I call it a well-behaved trip.

(Note to self: NEVER forget the diaper bag even on the “just a few things” trip; 20 yellow, sticky, licked-but-not-clean fingers only means one more stop by the wipey aisle.)

You might have seen us a few times at the store and witnessed the “who will hold the bag” cat fight in the cart.

But with enough luck, a good bag o’something might even just get you down the shoe aisle, too!!!

Caps

Stocking that is. I have a precious client. She is almost 3, always with a cute bow in her hair, and most often in a dress and tights. She is usually polite and smiles at you. Should you see her at the mall with mom, you probably would never know she was participating in therapy.

She gets anxious around other children, prefers to play alone, has language delays, has a hard time negotiating her body in her environments, hates to get messy, and takes at least 2 hours to fall asleep. She often sleeps in her clothes, shoes, and yes, sometimes a stocking cap!

I asked mom the other day if it was OK with her that she slept like that. I wasn’t looking for the right answer. I just wanted to get a sense of how mom was feeling about things in general. As I expected, she was OK with all of her special sleep needs, but just really wanted sleep to occur without the battle.

Don’t we all?!

I was reminded of all the secret battles we have with our own kids in the privacy of our homes.

You know the ones! They win AND it goes against all the “how to” books as far as kids are concerned.

BUT.BY.GOLLY, you do it anyway because you need sleep, want a little peace and quiet (never heard that before have ya?!), OR as my daughter exclaimed the other day…”you are killing me.”

Revelations

Not like the end time. Just the end of your dignity.

A dear friend told me the other day about the amusement she incurred~at my expense~as my daughter led the other children in a make-believe activity at her house.

OH.YES!  The kind where it all seems like innocent make-believe at first, then all of a sudden…WHAM! YOU are revealed through your child AND in front of other adults no less!

You have no ability to intervene and feign silly childish pretend since you are not even there!

In this case, my daughter had the privilege of playing me in the reenactment of what we like to call, “GET IN YOUR SEAT AND BUCKLE RIGHT NOW AND I.BETTER.NOT.HAVE.TO.TELL.YOU.AGAIN!”

And let’s not pretend here that the all-cap letters is a typo! You know exactly what that means! There might have been yelling involved.

A-hem!

What in the world does all the above have to do with helping families?!!

YES, I am a therapist! And YES, I work with children and parents who live each day with battles of their own. And YES, I am an every-day-kinda parent who is still figuring out the battles with my kids, too!

You see, sometimes the “tools” that I advise for families work for them AND me! And sometimes, well, they don’t work for either of us!

Best of all? Many times, I learn how to be a better parent because the families I work with teach me something everyday, too!

In the end, we all work together!

And that is how I hope it will happen here at Blissfully Domestic!

Stacey blogs at The Truest Thing