With a new school year starting, I had 2 things I wanted to somehow fit into the day for both me and my son: Getting consistent exercise by walking the dog AND just getting some quality time with my son. Because he has Autism, he doesn’t really talk much. He mostly sends me text messages when he really needs to communicate something. Over the summer, he was at an outdoor camp with OutdoorsForAll, getting tons of exercise AND because I needed to take him each morning, we had time in the car to spend together. Though we don’t really talk during that time, somehow a connection is built and I’ve seen that slip away over the course of a school year when we don’t have time like this to spend with each other each day.
So we set up a new routine to address both time together AND exercise. We’re on our second week and it all started by putting this in his Outlook calendar. We agreed to walk the dogs every morning from 6:45 to 7:15am. Because it’s in his calendar, he gets up and is ready to go by then. He’s just wired this way and I’m convinced this will be the key to him being independent and holding a job as an adult. While it’s hard to get up a little earlier each morning, I’m loving the time we get to spend together each day. And it’s a great habit to teach him for his life now and well into his future.
I'm a working parent with young adult daughter and son with Autism. I am an independent Product Management Consultant focused exclusively on helping companies who serve children with special needs.
I'm also passionate about my kids, as I would expect any parent to be. I bring my project management skills home and my crazy knowledge about managing schedules home and use them both to manage my family. More importantly, I use these skills from work to manage my son's Autism therapy program.
Over the years, I've wanted to volunteer more with the Autism community. My form of volunteering is mentoring parents of friends who have found themselves in the difficult position of raising a child who has Autism. I have moments where I wonder where we'd be if I wasn't a project manager by trade, especially as I help parents who are struggling as this is new territory for them.
I recently was helping a long time friend who was dating a man who had a child with Autism. As I shared my ideas with her and strategies for how to make life better for this child, she said, "You should write all of this great advice down."
This blog is about capturing those ideas. I also hope it inspires other parents out there to not only be the best parent they can be, but to do that while still pursuing the dreams they have for their careers. I believe you can do both.
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Organizing Dreen 