Special Needs Sharing Question: How do you react to the changes in routine that occur when you vacation away from home? About This Page:

[Sandra Bostwick]

Special Needs Sharing Question: How do you react to the changes in routine that occur when you vacation away from home?

Do they energize you or wear you out? Do they influence your mood? How about your tolerance for sensory information from the environment?

Please share!

[mechurchlady]

How does a change in routine affect me? Hard question for me.

It is nice to not have to do chores while on vacation. So some of the changes are good as in less exercise, worries, and stress as in not being online, not having to worry about what chores to do, and not having to plan meals.

Change of routine affects mom way more than me. She is on a set time frame for her diet. Change is not good for her in that way. The bad side is not being to have my goat milk, not being able to raid the fridge at night, not having online people to talk with, and having to eat at set times when I am used to dinner, midnight snack and small snacks if any,

[Sandra Bostwick]

Originally Posted by mechurchlady

How does a change in routine affect me? Hard question for me.

It is nice to not have to do chores while on vacation. So some of the changes are good as in less exercise, worries, and stress as in not being online, not having to worry about what chores to do, and not having to plan meals.

Change of routine affects mom way more than me. She is on a set time frame for her diet. Change is not good for her in that way. The bad side is not being to have my goat milk, not being able to raid the fridge at night, not having online people to talk with, and having to eat at set times when I am used to dinner, midnight snack and small snacks if any,

You make a great point! To be honest, I hadn't thought of the positives of a change in routine. That is one of the main reasons for a vacation.

[mechurchlady]

Let us talk about yesterday. I sleep days so that meant sleeping nights to go to DLR. I finally got some sleep which is good. I normally have dinner at 6 pm and I should have eaten at 5 because of the stress and exercise but that change in routine did not affect me except the strong onions on my stomach. There was more stress than usual but it was good for me to practice not yelling at rude people and one needs to have high stress at times so that one does not get to where BOO freaks them out. So the stress was bad for me but it also was good in that it pushed me further.

I am a social misfit and do not meet the standards of some groups of people. the change of routine and thus having to deal with some rather rude people forced me to go further than I normally do so that is good. It is rude to walk through a group of seated people when there is a roped off walkway a few feet away. It is rude to wedge through the crowd. I did not hurt anyone and did not cuss so that change in routine was very good as it pushed me farther than I could go. That was a good thing

As you see those changes actually are bad for me health wise but they also pushed me to go farther emotionally, physically and mentally. I also had one of them AH HA moments at Innoventions and realized I was cold and crying because of low sugars and hunger. Recognizing that I am in danger is something I need to work on so the changes in routine meant I did something good, recognize my failing health.

My mom has toast, peanut butter, coffee, and a bit of jelly every day. I changed her routine by having breakfast at various Disney restaurants and for her change is very hard so that was not easy on her but the change meant new foods to try. I messed her routine up big time on our birthday trip but from that she is now planning more trips. She smiled. She tried new things. There are bad things in changing routines but sometimes when you no longer do the same thing every day then you experience many good things like french toast, Mickey waffles, parades, shows, and rides. Routines can end up being ruts. I wish mom would ask for oatmeal or bacon or something besides toast, peanut butter, bit of jelly, coffee with 2 sweetener and 3 canned milk.