Page 93 - Parents Magazine (December 2019)
P. 93
how my brain was going to react
to the intrusion of a little
human into my life. I don’t know
if it was the hormones or the
overwhelming love or simply the
responsibility that comes with
keeping another person alive,
but everything changed in the
moment of his birth. Chaos
didn’t overwhelm me anymore. WHEN YOU HAVE
“Embrace the If anything, it motivated me.
Chaos” If there was one thing that SENSITIVE SKIN
I soon could predict with
Rebecca Lemaitre
Concord, MA certainty in my life with a child, YOUR CLOTHES CAN
it was that life was now
AS A WOMAN WITH Asperger’s,
unpredictable. Whenever I fought
I very carefully avoided TURN ON YOU
against that chaos, I recognized
situations that I couldn’t control
the first signs of a meltdown
in my life pre-motherhood.
tingling in my brain. But what we
Even though I wasn’t diagnosed
resist persists. When I remind
until after age 30, I had long
myself to “embrace the chaos,”
known that unplanned events or
my panic passes.
deviations from my routine were
I’m not the first to preach
enough to cause a “record skip”
such a philosophy, but I am happy
in my brain—if not a dreaded
to shout it from the rooftops.
Aspie meltdown.
When we surrender to what we
Then my son was born. While
can’t control, we find the beauty
I was pregnant, I had no idea
and the joy in even the hardest
moments. I carried this
philosophy forward as my son
aged from baby to toddler and
W H E N W E
from toddler to preschooler, and
S U R R E N D E R T O then carried it forward again
W H AT W E as my mother load increased from
one human being to two.
C A N ’ T C O N T R O L ,
Is every day with my two
W E F I N D T H E
children chaotic and crazy and
B E A U T Y A N D T H E J OY full of curveballs and surprises ™
I N E V E N T H E and things I can’t control? Of Try ARM & HAMMER Sensitive
course. But is every day filled Skin Free & Clear detergent–
H A R D E S T M O M E N T S . no dyes, no perfumes, just clean.
with more joy and beauty
than I would have ever imagined Because every wash counts.
possible? Absolutely.
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