Crying over new school clothes

Just days away from the start of the new school year and we are riding the emotional roller coaster. Whee!!

Both kids are a little bit anxious about school as they always are. Neither does well with any kind of transition even good ones so starting a new school year brings new routines, new desks, new teachers, and new school clothes. Thank goodness both kids backpacks were in good shape and can be used again. Like when does that ever happen? Usually I'm doing the first bag replacement by about December and then duct tape the suckers together to last until the end of June. This year the kids get to keep their bags so at least that is one less change they have to get used to.

Now for those of you who don't have a child with Autism and you are lucky enough that if on the hottest damn day of the year you said "hey kids lets go for ice cream" and you're kids don't cry and freak out then be happy. When I say that my kids hate change I mean it is brutal for them. They don't mean to cause a fuss but it's just one of those things that is very difficult for them. So it's a really big deal to keep the backpacks. Yeah backpacks!!

Normally I try not to go overboard with the new clothes because it's just one more change for them to get used to. However both kids have grown quite a bit and new clothes were in order. I've learned not to bring the kids for back to school shopping. I just hope for the best when it comes to picking out styles and sizes. To their credit they did try to act excited about them as they looked up over their video game playing. Sigh.

So while I was smart enough to just buy the clothes when they weren't around apparently I'm not smart enough to try to clear some of their outgrown clothes from their closets when they are gone too. Drew of course still liked every single shirt in his closet and wanted to keep them. This despite the fact that he has about 3 favourite shirts and rarely wears anything else. At first I thought I was making some progress with Camryn's clothes because she happily told me that this shirt was too small and that one isn't her style anymore. We were able to pull out about 10 tops. Then the tears started and she sobbed about not having those clothes in her closet because she loved all of them. So we started hanging them up again. Sigh.

Maybe some of their clothes will magically disappear the next time they go to their dads house. I never learn.....