DETECTIVE WORK

The Full Spectrums went to see a movie a few weeks ago, which is, in itself, a rarity. We went with my Meeting Friend and her family, and chose the only movie that was playing in a matinee, Mr. Holmes.

During a sad, moving part of the movie where Sherlock is really, really old and feeble and decrepit and does something pathetic, Z suddenly laughed aloud. I cringed. Perhaps she was uncomfortable, but it just felt very awkward and inappropriate...I tried to convince myself it was a mistake, but it happened again a few minutes later during a similar part. Everyone else in the theater was quiet...real quiet.  

“Good luck getting old,” said my Meeting Friend as we left the theater. As we always do, my dear MF and I looked for the bright side: “She’s very practical and realistic!” we assured one another; “Great sense of the absurd!”

On another note, the Full Spectrum children are very into any and all Secret Agent/Detective-y stuff, and were absolutely fascinated by the way Sherlock Holmes can detect things about people just through observation. As we walked back to the car, I asked them what Sherlock Holmes could know about them just by using his powers of discernment.

Z answered immediately:”That I’m a sister, and that I was adopted.”

All G had to say was, “That I’m awesome!” [See forthcoming post, “AND MODEST, TOO.”]

I wanted to hear more from both children, though I found Z’s response quite touching, so I told them, “For me, I think Sherlock Holmes could tell that I am a mother, wife, and artist. Those are the most important things to me.”

“I’m awesome,” G repeated.

“I’m mean,” said Z. Though it’s sometimes true, I don’t think mean is who Z is. I looked at her skeptically. “Well...I can be mean,” she amended.

“Don’t you want to change that?”

“What do you mean?” One thing that IS who Z is is a master obfuscator.

“Don’t you want to not be mean?”

She paused. For a while. “...Yeah.”

“Do you think you can change? I do! You’re just a kid still!”

“I think” – very matter-of-fact – “I will always be a little bit mean.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, but I can tell I always will.”

“Well...that is something you will always have to work on then,” I assured her. “I know you can do that.”

“Huh?”

Hmm. Guess that conversation was over. (WHO, exactly, is in control all up in here?)

When I started writing this blog, I did not know anyone “like us;” I felt alienated, alone, and, much worse, so confused about parenting my two very different – from each other, from the “norm” -- children.

I felt like a failure in the most important role I’d ever had: motherhood.

I did not know, back in the day, that Z’s seemingly cruel laughter, her obfuscation, her self-proclaimed meanness are all attachment-disordered behaviors. I would have blamed myself for not raising her to be kind...I would have blamed her for being unkind and manipulative.

A number of factors (my own kinds of detective work: reading, researching, developing an online community, meeting others through the blog, finding a good specialist in attachment disorders, having a Meeting Friend) have helped me to become someone who is able to share the fruits of my detective work  in hopes of reaching people who feel as I have felt in the past (confused, alone) and feel now in the present (confused, alone, AND inspired, connected, and – every so often – just a little wise in my old age).

As for Z, if I were to name a third fundamental aspect of her identity that Sherlock Holmes might have discerned, I would say that she has a fabulous, quite broad sense of humor. That may be her, and OUR, saving grace.

Love,

Full Spectrum Mama

BLANKETS

Sensory processing differences make Blankets a big challenge for some. While my son, G, uses the same comforter year-round and is steaming in the summer and cool in the winter and “Mom, don’t bother me about this,” and my daughter, Z, always varies her blanket layers flawlessly for the “just right” amount, I am one of those people.

Here is a mere sampling of Potential Blanket Problems: improper weight, inadequate warmth, itchy, scratchy wool, side-to-side slippage, smallness, bottom-to-top slippage…Rilke said, “A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity”* -- so I’ve made a visual aid for those who might be unaware of the true scope of this topic.

                         Figure I – Issues in Blankets

For so long, at night, while trying to sleep or go back to sleep under Blanket(s) that just could not get right, I practiced thinking “peaceful” thoughts and feeling peaceful…In fact, for most of my life I have had an overarching goal of “achieving” “peace.”

A few months ago, I realized:

1. I didn’t get one of those kinds of lives,

and

2. Even if I had, my high physical and emotional sensitivities (SPD) would prevent total, utter “peace.”

So I decided on more realistic goals – goals that are worthy and sometimes a stretch but that I’ve for the most part been actually reaching; goals that make me happy (versus defeated) to think about…:

They are:

To practice living with

1.       much KINDNESS

and

2.      a mighty SENSE OF HUMOR.

So, now, when sleepless, I try (instead of perseverating on why I am not as “peaceful” or “asleep” as I should be) chuckling quietly to myself and, VERY kindly, I do not smack my peacefully sleeping husband. No, I am kidding about the chuckling. But it does help, with my particular neurology and bed-ology, to go for the gentle humor of it all instead of something overly elusive…

I haven’t even discussed mattresses, sheets, and pillows – or sharing a bed.

Love, and a big, sweet, slightly maniacal smile,

Full Spectrum Mama

*Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (Stephen Mitchell translation)

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