RaisingChaos

I lovingly call my 2 children Drama Queen and Johnny Knoxville. I have recently accepted that life with small children is generally messy and chaotic…then add in a fully neurodivergent household and it turns to mayhem. Generally speaking we are organized chaos with a list of unfinished tasks and day to day goals that may or may not see completion. Our daughter rolls around the house on a unicorn and our son has turned our living room into his personal parkour gym. The kitchen is always cluttered and the laundry room resembles a tornado that never fully touches down. It’s teamwork, but trying to find the balance between unrealistic perfection and spending quality time as family.

My husband and I met a few years before covid, compliments of an online dating website. We were both in our late 20s and not necessarily looking for a long-term relationship. In fact, I was still living at home and spending all my time flying between Washington State and Los Angeles while traveling and spending all my time in the gym. I then met Justin, a complete 360 into the air force and the complete opposite of my self-proclaimed outgoing craziness. Fast Forward 6ish years…we moved across the country to Texas and have added miniature chaotic versions of ourselves to the mix. To say the least, our house is loud, unorganized chaos and always in a constant state of movement and craziness. We’re both always wanting to the chase the next big dream and always seem to be packing and unpacking for the next roadtrip or adventure. We had to make a point to make it a family rule that allows only 1 trip a month. It’s only January and we already have trips planned and booked all over the country to Disney, Colorado, South Carolina and Montana. Being in 1 place the month of January has been a much needed break; we spent most of November and December traveling. In fact, this was the 1st Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we have spent at home since we were married. One of the biggest questions we get is how we travel with neurodivergent children. The key word is a routine, but honestly we barely follow a routine. The honest truth is the fact that our children are just used to travel and love to see new places and experience new things. Our daughter went on her first flight across the country and a multi day train ride before she was 4 months old.

I would be lying if I said it was always easy; we have a constant level of chaos whenever we travel. We never follow a schedule and we just wing it or go with the flow. Our kids are loud, somewhat unhinged and feral. Yet, we strongly believe that there is a truth to letting them experience new things and learn in new environments. We bring our tools, but prepare and expect that something will always not go according to plan. It adds to the chaos and makes life interesting.