Part-time work crippling me

These situations are going to be challenging for even the best adapted autist I think - there is so much sensory overload plus the social interaction with unpredictable little monsters and their older monster parents.

There are some things you can take away from this that are positive however:

1 - you are surviving it so it shows you have the ability to endure a lot of stress. Congratulate yourself every day for this.

2 - you can learn ways to reduce the stress a bit at a time with practice. Learning to relax your shoulders by taking a few seconds where you have a moment to breathe deeply and force your shoulders to relax can give a bit of temporary relief. Try to notice when you are tensing up and actively relax your muscles to get these mini-boosts through the day. It can really help by building mental stamina in my experience.

3 - you are learning to script responses to the people you interact with. There will be great defence mechanisms for future responses and can help you feel less anxious before the interactions. You will always find new challenges and challenges but you are learning to cope now and will continue to learn in future. Have faith in your ability to evolve with this.

4- learn how to wind down after these events. Your approach to sleep is great one but taking time to write down everything that is on your mind first can help you have much bette quality sleep and hence recovery. Just get a notepad and write it all out. Also drink to hydrate afterwards as sef care is often overlooked - avoid overly salty food, booze and caffaine and you are creating a better mental landscape for your recovery.

5 - reward yourself when you complete the run of work. Having a goal at the end of it can be a powerful motivator.

6 - When dealing with kids who are acting unpredictably I find it helps to think that is this was me at that age, would I behave in the expected way or would I be confused, fearful, angry etc and possibly act out because of sensory overload?  Sure it may just be some spoiled brat whose parent has not taugh it any manners but I find it better to give them the benefit of the doubt and think that later in life they will proably try that on someone who will make them regret it anyway. Don't let it become your problem.

Just a few thoughts - we can use these sorts of situations to learn and grow our resiliance so try to see it as a positive that you have to work through but at least you have some tools now to get through it more easily.

Yeh, I came here to say pretty much this too: wrong job type. 

Children in a confined space are too much.

Your parents are partly right though. Repeated exposure helps to acclimatise you to it. While this is not the best job, if you do something easier in future you'll be able to cope better. You'll always know you managed something worse and you can do it.

You need to push yourself a bit to grow. But, it needs to be either in small doses or for a limited time, so you learn but don't get overloaded.

By February you will think this was a good idea to try, even if you don't do it again.

Everything had positives and negatives. In pleased you like the costume. 

That sounds like really hard work for me, and I could definitely not do it! I work full time and let me tell you, I would do my 7,5 hrs over your 4 hrs any day! Children deplete me so fast, and then you the loud environment in addition to that. There is absolutely no wonder you get exhausted from this. I am in a similar-ish situation at the moment, being completely drained after work. It’s like I’m running on low battery all the time and never manage to recharge. 

Anyway just wanted to tell you that your 4 hours is not as little and easy as you might be telling yourself and it is completely understandable that it drains you! 

I'm a computer games animator, and I now work remotely so I don't need to deal with commutes or offices. I had got up to lead at the last place till that made me burn out (and discover my autism). The company I started at in September, I'm not lead just senior, and I only have one meeting a week so it's helping as I'm not working as hard as I was which is helping me recover.

This kind of job seems particularly poorly suited for an autistic person - no wonder you're exhausted! If you get through the next few days, you can be really proud of yourself and your resilience. Even if you don't you can still be proud of yourself for getting this far.

You might find that working a few hours somewhere that's quieter and doesn't involve noisy kids is much more manageable. I work from home - sometimes it's P/T, sometimes F/T, and although I can find the workload challenging at times, I can at least control my environment.

Good luck and best wishes for the next few days!

What's your job do you mind me asking? I have thought of other jobs but I don't know what I would be good at. If anything.

Cinnabar_wing said:

Plus horrible kicking kids should go on the naughty list. (Maybe you could just mention the words naughty list next time, no threats just say those two words quietly).

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll mention the naughty list next time that should definitely help. SHould be the worst nightmare for a kid.

The outfit is so cute! It's offically my favourite item of clothing I own now. lol.

I work full time, but I have to say I don't think I could do your job! That sounds exhausting to me, there are some jobs that don't use all your energy so maybe when you recover from this, it might be worth trying to find something yourself that actually is more do-able!

Plus horrible kicking kids should go on the naughty list. (Maybe you could just mention the words naughty list next time, no threats just say those two words quietly). The outfit sounds cute though!