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"It was one of those nights. David was in fine form, tantruming over every little thing from a DVD not playing fast enough to sloshing water on his shirt. Then his sister kept invading his personal space, so he started screaming. I grew up with older brothers, and believe me, I know how siblings can fight. Some minor squabbles are actually healthy interaction, so I stay out of it as much as I can until it crosses the line to &amp;quot;too much&amp;quot;. That night, I intervened because David was irritating Anna, and in turn, Anna irritated David to the point of meltdown. He was crying uncontrollably and lashing out physically, overwhelmed and overstimulated. As an autistic child, this can happen more easily than with others, and he can go from zero to sixty on the meltdown meter in seconds. I held him to calm him down, and then I got an earful from Anna. &amp;quot;Why are you taking his side!&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not.&amp;quot; I defended. &amp;quot;You are! He hit me.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I made him say &amp;#039;sorry&amp;#039;, Anna. He didn&amp;#039;t hit that hard and you pushed him first.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;But &amp;#039;sorry&amp;#039; doesn&amp;#039;t work with him! It&amp;#039;s not fair.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;What do you suggest, Anna?&amp;quot; I snapped. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m tired of all this, too, and nothing I do makes either of you happy.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;d had it. I was exhausted, they were an hour past bedtime from all this ridiculousness, and I badly needed to unwind. That wasn&amp;#039;t to be, though. Instead I watched as Anna had a meltdown of her own.  &amp;quot;Well how do you think I feel? I&amp;#039;m only nine, my brother has autism so I can&amp;#039;t play with him like everyone else gets to play with their brothers and sisters, and my parents are divorcing! Do you think I&amp;#039;m happy?&amp;quot; She shrieked. Then she ran up the stairs, tears streaming down her face An hour later, after much talking between the two of us, and hugging and cuddling between all three of us, life was back to pretty good again, and I tucked them in, promising we&amp;#039;d all have a better day tomorrow. Then I took a shower, and had my meltdown, sobbing, because I&amp;#039;m tired of being the overwhelmed Mommy with no one at home to lean on. And most of all, I&amp;#039;m tired of my kids being the kids whose parents are divorcing. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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