Overnight Care

I live around the world from family and friends that I grew up with.
Finland vs Canada...not exactly a hop and skip away!
To have a baby in another country was never a problem for me, although I did miss the possibilities of play-dates with friends and their babies.
What I didn't realize was how much harder it would be before and after V-Man got diagnosed with autism.
He was diagnosed at the age of 2 as "showing strong signs of autism" and as of a month ago, (he's almost 5) officially diagnosed with autism and mental retardation.
Well, that sucks is what you're probably thinking-and yeah it does suck a whole bunch that he's non-verbal autistic.
But at the same time -it could be worse.

Anyways, once V-Man turned 3, and was still showing those strong signs of autism, we were given the chance to have a break.
Once a month for three days and nights, he goes to overnight care. It's run by the city and has 24/7 supervision and although one could call it a facility, it's much more comfortable than what you might think!
The one V-Man goes to is more like a 4-bedroom apartment and each child has their own room and small bathroom.
It's not just for autistic children but for all disabilities.
They take him for walks, swimming and to McDonalds as a treat...they have routines and I think that helps a lot!!
It's hard to nail down routines in the summer because something always comes up!!

At first, we felt like crap "dumping our kid" with some strangers that will have to guess what he wants and deal with the screaming and waking up in the middle of the night.
But then we realized that we live in Europe -not exactly a short drive to grandparents homes and most of our friends don't have experience handling a strong boy like V-Man. The staff are all trained to handle kids of various disabilities and have the patience I wish I had.
And after a couple months, he loves it!! He doesn't even stop to look in our direction when we say goodbye and that's an excellent sign!
We have even started going on dates or taking turns to see a movie, so the other parent watches M-Girl and A-Man.
The guilt has melted away especially when ONC started calling us and offering us extra times whenever there's a cancellation! They absolutely adore him and while it may not be the same as grandparents -they've helped us so much that we consider them family.

We do pay for this special service and it's about 8€/day.
Also, and most importantly, it gives us time to bond with the other two. A-Man is still in that Terrible 2 phase and is a bit of a bully with V-Man, so it gives them a break from each other.
Quite often we can forget little ones need breaks too - just like parents!
BIMU

PS -if this sounds like familiar reading, there's a reason for that!  I used to have a blog called "Learning About Finland" which was hacked and deleted on July 2nd, 2014.
But now I'm back.