Too Much Holiday!

I'm sure you and I could never have too much holiday, but I'm afraid the past month or so has been quite tough for my daughter.  What with the three weeks she had off from college and the double-double bank holiday weekends, her routine has been well and truly thrown.

This hasn't caused any major outward difficulties, but I did begin to notice she was becoming more and more introverted and spending far too much time alone in her room.  It was getting increasingly difficult to get her to come out anywhere, even to walk the dog, and she's a grown woman, I can hardly manhandle her!  This isn't helped by the fact that when you are at home and getting on with the day-to-day stuff, time whizzes past and you suddenly realise she has been up there for more than a couple of hours listening to the same CD over and over again.

I also noticed a definite deterioration in her speech - she couldn't even be bothered to answer a question with a 'yes', just gave me a thumbs up.  Again, it's easy for her to let her conversation slide when she is at home as we know her so well and can second guess her meaning.  However, I can't begin to count the times over the years when I have had major meltdowns myself in order to get her to make a proper sentence instead of grunting a monosyllable at me.  So frustrating when you know that if she was with a stranger she would make the effort to talk properly.

This kind of situation hasn't been a problem for quite some time as for the last couple of years her Monday and Friday activities have continued throughout the school holidays so she has had the extra outside stimulation.  So the month of April 2011 was not a good one for her.  I knew she was happy to get back into routine on the first day back at her theatre group when she was up at about 6 a.m. and dressed and ready to go about an hour before she needed to be - as well as doing half the housework on her way!

I don't think this is a situation that will arise very frequently - Royal weddings & Easter don't usually coincide - but it is obviously something I have to watch out for and try to ensure she doesn't slip beneath my radar again!