A Work in Progress — Entry #2

diary of a parent helping an easily dysregulated child

Sep 22, 2024

I guess the world socks…

April 23, 2023

The night before was quite big and full attending a wedding in the province during one of the hottest days of the year. We got home pretty late. Spent from the long drive and all the socialization we had to do, we decided to let the kids sleep off their weary bodies all morning.

It’s a Sunday and we hoped to take advantage of what’s left on our weekend to hang out with the kids outdoors. After resting that entire morning, we thought of taking them to this carnival we’ve been wanting to go to just near our house. All of a sudden, everyone seemed to forget about being tired. Everyone was looking forward to going. Everyone was excited to get out of the house.

Until everyone isn’t.

Because Miguel had to put on socks.

I’m not so sure anymore when this started but I am 100% sure this was one of the worst days we had with him that it was such a core memory for me.

I remember asking the kids to put on their rubber shoes knowing full well that they would be inclined to run around when we’re outdoors and as a parent, I would very much prefer that their feet are protected when they do.

But as soon as Miguel started putting his socks on, he immediately got irritated and then started crying. He was complaining about the heat and the socks being very itchy. We couldn’t understand why because he’s been wearing socks prior this and this was the first time we heard him make a fuss about it.

Not knowing how to deal with this problem at the time, we retorted by fighting with him. We really wanted to leave and we wanted to leave NOW which obviously did not help at all but rather escalated to lots of shouting, Miguel throwing stuff around the house, and then we started threatening him with, “if you don’t stop this, we will ban you from using the gadgets.”

Ugh. This day sucked big time.

But then everyone got tired of fighting.

Mike and I decided to go down to our son’s level. We can fight fire with fire and eventually burn the house down or we could opt to extend grace and save what remains of our dignity.

We let him be on the floor for a moment, Mike was beside him reassuring him that we will wait for him.

We also let him skip wearing rubber shoes for this instance.

We were finally able to get out of the door, have fun at the carnival and salvage what’s left of the day not just for him but also for his sister who witnessed everything.

Up until this day, Miguel still finds it hard to wear socks sometimes. We learned that the stitches inside them are what’s causing the irritating feeling for him. We are still in search for comfortable ones so if you have any leads, let us know!

Be back soon for entry #3!