Sometimes my kid's sensory issues make me sad

[Terabith]

A friend just went to the Van Gogh exhibit with the projected paintings in St. Louis, and it sounds wonderful and beautiful.  I saw that it's in Charlotte through Christmas, and I was thinking it would be fun to take the family and go see that and spend the night with my sister in law before we travel on to my parents' house for Christmas.  So I asked my sister in law if she and her wife had been, and they had.  They said it was very loud and that they got motion sick.  

Loud is a deal breaker.  I don't think my kid could tolerate it, even with headphones probably.  

Just sad.  I'd like a fun family excursion that everyone enjoys.  

[prairiewindmomma]

15 minutes ago, Terabith said:

A friend just went to the Van Gogh exhibit with the projected paintings in St. Louis, and it sounds wonderful and beautiful.  I saw that it's in Charlotte through Christmas, and I was thinking it would be fun to take the family and go see that and spend the night with my sister in law before we travel on to my parents' house for Christmas.  So I asked my sister in law if she and her wife had been, and they had.  They said it was very loud and that they got motion sick.  

Loud is a deal breaker.  I don't think my kid could tolerate it, even with headphones probably.  

Just sad.  I'd like a fun family excursion that everyone enjoys.  

Thank you for sharing this. It is coming here and now I know it won’t work for us either.

If you want to go for yourself, go. Hugs!

[HomeAgain]

Oh, that stinks!  I had considered it, too, but thanks for the head's up.  DS gets sick in movie theaters and this sounds like it would be a miserable experience for him.  It looked beautiful on the commercials, though. 

There is a more static experience that I think we'll shoot for instead.  DS is happiest in an empty museum, and there's one we've been meaning to go to.  So, that'll be on the after-vaccine list.

[Terabith]

8 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Thank you for sharing this. It is coming here and now I know it won’t work for us either.

If you want to go for yourself, go. Hugs!

Yeah, but driving 4.5 hours to do it by myself seems less fun than a family excursion, you know?  And I am also not crazy about super loud things, although my friend who went to the one in St. Louis said he did not find the one there particularly loud.  Hard to say if that's an individual tolerance difference or a different cities calibrating things differently thing.  

[Dmmetler]

Have they tried ear filters? I bought the Calmer ones, and the mini size seems to work really well for my kid and has allowed participation in things like parties without too much of a struggle-but are a lot less visible than using ear protectors or even noise cancelling earbuds. The only downside is that the translucent ones, which are pretty much invisible unless you look really close, also are invisible when dropped. 

[Drama Llama]

Something like his should have a sensory friendly option.  I know so many kids and adults with sensory issues who would love the visual piece.

[Melissa Louise]

That's sad. Sometimes you just wish you could do a thing. 

Could you go with a friend, and take headphones for yourself? 

[rdj2027]

We went when it was here in Hawaii and it was very quiet and quite dark.  The first part were just pictures giving a summary of his life.  The second part had moving images but they were rather slow.  I wonder if the set-up is different in the various locations.  My Aspie kiddo actually loved it.  We saw quite a few little kids, but honestly, they could not have cared less about VanGogh, the reading was boring for them and the images repeat so they were pretty much done after the second round.

[Lecka]

Look on their website, maybe they will have some sensory friendly nights.  A lot of things do.  You might also call and ask.

Sometimes they will post on an area autism Facebook group and have fliers up at therapy centers, for sensory friendly nights, but I won’t see them advertised or mentioned anywhere else.  

[Farrar]

There are like four different ones. Seriously. They're all a little different apparently. I would not describe the one I went to as "loud." It also wasn't something not to be missed though. It was meh. I mean, I enjoyed it, but I also had half price tickets and a ten minute drive. It was not a truly amazing experience or anything.

ETA: The point being! 1) It might not be loud. Double check that it's the same one. 2) It's not all that anyway.

Edited November 15, 2021 by Farrar

[Annie G]

Dd and dgd went to the one in Atlanta a couple weeks ago and she said it wasn’t loud, but the dark period of his life included music she felt was ‘more intense’ but not loud. 
Dd has issues w vertigo so she’s pretty cautious w things that cause motion sickness and she had no problem. They tagged along w the senior group from their church and they enjoyed it. 
But like it was mentioned above, there are several and might be different experiences. 

[Terabith]

2 hours ago, Dmmetler said:

Have they tried ear filters? I bought the Calmer ones, and the mini size seems to work really well for my kid and has allowed participation in things like parties without too much of a struggle-but are a lot less visible than using ear protectors or even noise cancelling earbuds. The only downside is that the translucent ones, which are pretty much invisible unless you look really close, also are invisible when dropped. 

We have not tried ear filters!  That might be worth a try.  We have done some noise canceling ear buds, but they weren't awesome.  

[Terabith]

3 hours ago, Dmmetler said:

Have they tried ear filters? I bought the Calmer ones, and the mini size seems to work really well for my kid and has allowed participation in things like parties without too much of a struggle-but are a lot less visible than using ear protectors or even noise cancelling earbuds. The only downside is that the translucent ones, which are pretty much invisible unless you look really close, also are invisible when dropped. 

I just ordered two sets!

[Dmmetler]

Just now, Terabith said:

I just ordered two sets!

If the size isn't right, they're pretty good at working with you. We found the standard were too big, but the mini were great. 

[Terabith]

2 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

If the size isn't right, they're pretty good at working with you. We found the standard were too big, but the mini were great. 

Yes, the kids and I both have smaller than average ears, so I went with the mini.  I got a clear set and a purple set.  There are a lot of times when people other than Lyr could use some assistance, and having a non invisible set seemed like a good idea.  

[Dmmetler]

7 minutes ago, Terabith said:

Yes, the kids and I both have smaller than average ears, so I went with the mini.  I got a clear set and a purple set.  There are a lot of times when people other than Lyr could use some assistance, and having a non invisible set seemed like a good idea.  

I'm planning to order some of the kids ones in different colors when I buy more (At this point, I just consider them to be something that gets replaced every few months, because they definitely make a difference) and see if that makes them less likely to be lost (They're also supposed to be softer, which seems like it might be good if there's a party going on and shaking the dorm enough to make sleep hard for a hypersensory kid). 

[PeterPan]

5 hours ago, Terabith said:

They said it was very loud and that they got motion sick.

I've been looking into going to the big city near us for it and that's what I figured too, that it would be a sensory nightmare.

There are so many other great things that ARE accessible. Can you go by yourself or with someone else? 

[PeterPan]

4 hours ago, Terabith said:

Hard to say if that's an individual tolerance difference or a different cities calibrating things differently thing.  

There could be variations. I heard something about it being *one room* in our city. I thought that sounded kinda boring, personally. Gives you nowhere to go if you're done and want to pick up the pace and move on.