Handling the meltdowns on holidays

We went away with cousins this weekend. Bright Eyes handled it mostly really well. He really wanted to play with the kids and joined in all sorts of plays, games and sports. He drew a picture for their 'art exhibition' and made a plasticine slug with me. He even spent an hour coaching his four year old cousin on the ins and outs of grid iron, his sport of choice. He ate meals at the table and he coped with a lot of noise and chaos, and at losing at ping pong.

He did have two major meltdowns. Both were just before bed, one because someone (not naming, but Dad, you know who you are!) forgot to pack his pyjamas, and the other because the family was not watching his fave show - Masterchef. Both meltdowns went for half an hour before he calmed down and went to bed, and both were relatively loud and took creativity to deal with, but he did get over them in the end.

I was disappointed that he didn't want to come to the beach and for a walk, but he's never enjoyed the 'getting going' part of doing those things, and he did join in going to the park.

All in all, a pretty successful trip for him. I was a lot less tense than I have been at other family things in the past. (When his uncle had a family 40th birthday a couple of years ago, he told everyone it was boring and stupid and he was going home....)