Respite and a Silver Lining

Respite is defined as : to grant a temporary period of relief to. Adoptive parents in challenging parenting situations sometimes need to call upon respite care for their children. It often gives parents a life line where there are few other options. Allowing both the parents and child a chance to regroup and a break from the cycle of behavior they may be seeing. I have written before about the challenging situation we are in with three of our children at a private school and our daughter who is struggling at the public school where she is provided the support system she needs and a social/emotional class room environment that will hopefully continue her healing. At first glance, I struggled greatly with the vacation and no school day schedules that didn't line up except on National Holidays. We have been engaged with K's very challenging behaviors that have been ongoing over the past 3 weeks, leaving little of us left over for our other three kids, and what is left is usually either spent or irritable. I could see the burden piling on them as K took more and more of mom and dad's time. Last week, the 3 had half the week off of school. A month ago, T & I had debated on who would take off work to cover all the off day time. Then it struck me, as much as T&I need a break from K, the other three kids take the brunt of it and they needed a break too. Not only are they in the thick of K's behaviors, but they also get nailed on the upswing when mom and dad have little left to give them. Where is their respite? I finally saw the silver lining. The private school off days they have while their sister is at public school are a blessing. It was right under my nose! I promised myself last week that there would be NO catching up on laundry, house cleaning, internet surfing, etc etc on those days. I would use those days to engage totally and completely with the three without K's drama taking center stage. So we did, and we had boats of fun, just hanging around. And they took full advantage of just being kids....like they should be.