Our Summer Holiday
Helen Horn
I am mum to two young men. My eldest son James, who is 27 years old, has a diagnosis of Wolf- Hirschhorn Syndrome and Autism. On my blog I write about...
Yesterday we returned from our annual summer holiday with James. Since he moved into his own supported accommodation flat four years ago, taking him away for a few days together is something we have done every year.
The first year was nice but there were difficulties with the venue and the degree of travelling required. This year however was the third year we have returned to the same holiday park.
It works well as familiarity is good for James.
The park is less than an hour drive from James’ home and is in a beautiful part of the country. There is everything we need on site for him and it is very much his holiday. This is not at all about what me and my husband want to do, this is about doing the things James will like and spending quality time with him.
Our time with James is spent taking walks around the holiday park, visiting the shop/café and having cake, going in the arcade, going swimming and using the hot tub which this year he enjoyed more than ever. In the lodge we spend lots of time doing the things he enjoys to do at home. I take a huge bag of puzzles, books and his iPad too.
With all of that and managing James personal care, keeping up with his meds and gastrostomy feeds etc its pretty full on for us. He’s an early riser too and we are no longer accustomed to this on a daily basis, nor are we getting any younger so we do find it pretty tiring. But, we can manage for a few days as we know we can rest when we go back home.
Times like this with James bring about a range of emotions for me.
I was looking forward to spending time with him but going into it knowing it was going to be hard work. Aside from the lack of sleep and keeping up with James’ personal care/feeds/meds routines, he is very demanding of my attention. He will spend very short spells with his dad where necessary but on the whole it’s my attention he wants all the time. I literally do not get a minute break.
As our holiday nears its end I begin to dread taking him home. I’m shattered, I’m definitely ready for a rest, to just sit and have a meal or a cup of tea without having to multi task reading and puzzling etc. But for all that I know when I take him home, I’ll miss him and I wonder what he thinks too.
When we did leave James at home he was happy and settled. I’m sure he’d had a lovely time with us as we did him but he seemed ready to be back home and quickly settled back into his normal routine.
