Dear Reader,
How was your holiday? I hope it went well. The holiday came and went so fast for us this year! Partly because we are in that magical stage full of little kids that just love everything about the season, and believe in all the magic. I wish this age could last forever. The downside is, the more I learn about our family of ADHD brains, the more I’m learning about overstimulation, and we definitely felt it bad this year. I’m sure it happens every year, but this time I have a name for it! we definitely needed some heavy exercise after the adventures of opening new presents/toys and all the festivities with family and friends. The problem is… it is full on blizzarding outside. Winter decided to show up, and she came like the diva she is. So… no outside time.
While I was trying to just get anything under control with my own ADHD brain and simultaneously help my kids regulate, I looked at the tinsel my toddlers have been slowly destroying over the course of the season. It really wasn’t worth packing away. The house was already a mess. So… What is more mess? I put our floor mat in the middle of the room in hopes it would aide in a speedier cleanup, and let the kids do what they’ve been trying to do anyway: Destroy things!
I hope this doesn’t backfire and they think it’s okay to destroy other things, but the more I’m learning about brains, the more I’m inclined to let them have at it and just over-emphasize that they have to ask a grownup first. First of all, I think it requires a level of focus that is good for development. But also, it’s cause and effect, and just strangely satisfying.
I’m not a fan of “rage rooms.” I don’t think we should encourage throwing or smashing things, though I hear it is very cathartic. but meticulously picking something apart is different to me, somehow. I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain what I see, but I think that Tinkergarten.com did a better and more thorough job than I have time for. They point out in the article, that kids thrive off of destruction because they are influencing the world around them, and that is super empowering!
Honestly, I don’t regret it at all. I threw the tinsel away, they contained the mess to the mat as well as toddlers and a preschooler can, and they got some destructive energy out! it actually wasn’t too hard to pick up the mat and sweep the whole mess into the garbage can.
