Try Laughing

So Roses has Sensory Processing Disorder with some OCD qualities….and probably some other things that we haven’t “labeled” yet….(I hate labels).

She struggles if there is a lot going on and a lot of times it turns into sensory meltdowns. Sometimes, (or many times), a simple task of getting dressed can become a sensory meltdown. Its challenging, but we are finding that Laughing has been a great way to snap her out of it. Its interesting because the preschool teacher she had when she was 3, (she went to an amazing in-home Montessori school), said that when Roses got stuck in organizing or started getting overwhelmed, she would just tap into Roses sense of humor and it almost always helped. Why did I not make a mental note of this?

Anywho, the other night Roses was melting down, and really, I couldn’t tell you what triggered it, but it went something like this.

Roses- “Mommy I need you!”

Me- “ok I’m here”

Roses- “no go away!”

Me- “Ok Ill give you a minute”

Roses- “No I need you!”

Me- “um, ok here I am. Maybe I should start reading our story” (it was bedtime)

Roses- “No I don’t want a story”

Me- “OK, what do you want to do?” (Mind you, she is SCREAMING through all this)

Roses- “I want a story!”

Me- *sigh*

Ok…. so this back and forth irrationality went on for about 15 minutes…. I tried “hugging it out,” but sometimes touching her sends her even deeper into overload.

Finally I remembered it, Laughter.

So in a sarcastic and theatric voice, I said “gosh, oh man, you know what? My butt just really ITCHES!” (classy I know). She stopped, looked at me, and burst out laughing, she couldn’t even help it. Then we laughed together and I made more inappropriate comments. After that we chose a FUNNY story to read, Emmit’s Guide to Being Awesome. I read it in my best laughter-inducing voice and she went to bed happy.

SUCCESS

—Yesterday She Made herself laugh to interrupt her own negativity

So, Roses is funny and sometimes not so funny, in fact she can be obsessively negative. I find myself constantly trying to deflect it.

Today though, she deflected herself. So? Did I finally get through to her? Who knows, probably not, but I will relish in this moment.

So the whole family is driving to pick up Superman’s Jeep at the dealership because it had some maintenance work done. Of coarse the dealership was 30 minutes away.

Roses was having her loooooong moment of negativity. Eventually deflection was just too mentally exhausting so Superman and I started with the “cut it out” “stop” “your negativity is hurting my brain”…..type of replies.

Sunshine even chimed in and said “Stop Roses.” …..Roses reply….. “Stop what? Being awesome?! Ha, that won’t happen.” And THEN she laughed!! The negativity stopped and laughter was the medicine she needed. After that we all talked about how we can be funny when someone else is being negative.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh….