Yay for the holidays?

Holiday. "An extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in travelling."

Leave. Recess. Time off from work (yeah right).

Come September I will be asked by a few of parents that I run past on the way to school:

"How was your holiday"
"Great" or often "Good" I say.

But my, our, 'extended period of leisure and recreation' is usually a bit less leisurely than many others.  And it's not because we are into adventure camps. 

Anything but.  Our kids don't do camps, or kids clubs. Two of our three kids have autism, ADHD and a few things beside. Going or being on holiday in itself should be something executed with military precision. But I'll be honest.  It's always chaotic.  It doesn't matter how much I plan, it's always a rush, I'm always tired before we have left and I'm always worried about something going wrong.

- David will try to climb off the Ferry..

- Anthony will wander off, get lost and fall off the Ferry..

- David won't eat anything on the Ferry..

- Anthony will smash something on the Ferry.... maybe a window and then

- David will hurt himself on the glass but not be able to tell anyone and will then die on the Ferry...

We haven't got to the Ferry yet.   At least when we fly, they can't escape. They've always done relatively well on flights.. the aircraft has not been grounded once. I'm not paranoid, honest. But when your kids cant look after themselves you need to think about everything, all the time.  There is no 'relaxing' by a resort pool. It's a constant vigilance.  Preventing David from steeling all the pool toys, eating other people's snacks and generally destroying poolside paraphernalia. Chasing Anthony down the hall because he's petrified of a mosquito and will run the other way until his legs give out.

But that doesn't mean it's not a holiday though. On the contrary, we have a great time.  It's an excellent opportunity for us to help the kids develop their abilities to cope with things.  Slowly, Anthony understands about not wandering and running off and David is able to cope without holding onto and eating everything the pool area has to offer.  Anthony overcame his fear of fireworks whilst on holiday.

So it's probably less leisure than most but I speak the truth when I say it's great.  It really is, and the kids certainly think so. Anthony insists we have several because they are 'so good'. This means we include visits to relatives in the holiday count to keep him pleased with the 'count'.

On our own holidays away, we all love being at the pool.  But we've discovered a private one works best, gives the kids the freedoms they need and us the opportunity to teach them about what should happen.  I love seeing a years worth of progress in all my kids. Anthony can now tread water in the pool, Jane can have a full blown conversation on the risks of getting suncream in her eyes and David is just so much calmer these days.  He is able to interpret instructions so much better now and will understand what is going on. This is our 'holiday home', we say and sign using Makaton, and we are going 'swimming' or even 'swimming is finished'.

They can sail the days away on their own little ocean while we interpret and engage them. And that is a lovely holiday. Heck, it's even verging on relaxing.  Don't forget to ask me how it was in September, chances are that I will smile, and truthfully tell you, it was great!

Links
The Makaton Charity - #wetalkmakaton sign of the week 'holiday'
It's easy to remember, think of my son sailing in his pool with a skipper's hat on.  Brush the skip of your hat, skipper, you are on holiday.

Our blog - Never prouder of last place
Our blog - Swimming: A lead pipe, a ball and a pair of feet
Our blog - Turning fears into fancies in Florida

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Over the summer I am supporting #wetalkmakaton signs of the week.

Catch the latest one here.