Tonight we are starting something new to try to help our 13 year old son with ADHD and ASD to sleep better.
As a Librarian, I often hear from parents who are corncerned that their children don't enjoy reading and don't read enough. My own reality is far from that as my 4 children, and my husband and myself, are all avid readers.
Our kids are given 30 minutes from bedtime to lights out time to enjoy some final reading for the day. Unfortunately my 13yo has trouble falling asleep and will read through multiple books in bed until very very late. At some point he may also go and make a snack in the kitchen - sometimes a noisy and messy process. In order to get enough sleep to care for my other children and to function at work I had to stop trying to stay awake until he fell asleep.
We are receiving some valuable guidance from our sister-in-law, who is the Director of Curricula & Assistant Clinical Director at a global organization that works to resolve the behavioral, intellectual, social, emotional, cognitive and academic needs of individuals and families. She is very generously working with our son on his social skills, as well as supporting us emotionally and helping us to develop more advanced parenting skills.
Since we've identified that reading is a stimulating activity at bedtime, tonight we took the extreme (to us) step of removing the approximately 100 books he had in his room and put them behind locked doors in the basement. The plan is to allow him to only read in the living room, so that his bed is a place for sleep. For the first week we'll allow him to have three books a night - it sounds like a lot but is fewer than his norm. Two books the second week, one book the third week.
Hopefully we don't see this backfire at school, where he may end up reading through all his classes. We'll keep the teachers informed and tell him his online gaming time will be reduced if that happens.
We are so fortunate in Canada to have various options to allow us to keep our jobs while caring for our children and other loved ones. Sometimes we can even qualify for "EI" (Employment Insurance) and receive some payment while doing so.
With my son's recent Autism Spectrum diagnosis, I was able to take a year's Leave of Absence from work. I was guaranteed an "unpaid, job-protected leave of up to eight weeks per calendar year per specified family member" by the government, but my Collective Agreement language is so strong that I could take much more than that.
Someone suggested I check to see if I could also get some EI payments during this leave so I looked into it. I found information for a Family Caregiver benefit and applied for it. I received a phone call from a very kind government official who needed more paperwork about what she thought was my critically ill child. I was very confused because she said the paperwork I sent in, signed by the psychologist, was insufficient and that I needed something from my doctor. When I looked at the forms she directed me to it was clear that this was not the benefit for me!
After much searching, it turned out that the government gave very similar names to two completely different programs/benefits!
Family Caregiver Leave
Family caregiver leave is unpaid, job-protected leave of up to eight weeks per calendar year per specified family member.
Family Caregiver benefit
The Family Caregiver Benefit for Children (the Benefit) allows eligible caregivers to receive up to 35 weeks of financial assistance to provide care or support to a critically ill or injured child.
Sharing this in the hopes that it may help someone else and save them time and effort.
