I can't let brother-in-law's girlfriend ruin my Christmas!

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most of the year my son does it too. It's not daylight though, I really don't know what it is that wake him up so early. IT might be daylight but a lot of times he wakes up before the sun does. I was like that, but I was also addicted to caffeine by 4 or 5, my son isn't.
Right now he is going back to bed and actually sleeping in, it's so cold here (for us). So, it's the rare time that being in bed feels really good.

Pandora, laplantain explained that this person doesn't accept this child's diagnosis. Why would she "understand a bit better" if she also explained the sensitivity to light? it looks like she did explain a lot of this. And from laplantain's stories, it seems as if this person didn't even experience the "hysteria" firsthand.

It's very easy to tell her after the fact that she should have stayed home. So, the alternative is to never go anywhere because for a brief time, her son cries at daybreak? Either way, some judgemental soul will blame laplantain for doing the wrong thing.

But she didn't just say he "cried" at daybreak. I think most people would accept that, as kids often wake up grumpy. It was the screaming part that others would take issue with and find hard to understand. In an ideal world, others would understand but I am talking about the real world where people are often intolerant. Most people think an older child screaming means they are spoilt. This isn't always fair but it is a kind of behaviour that isn't going to make a child popular.

You can't protect your children from all intolerance and bigotry but it's a good idea to limit their exposure until they are old enough to be able to cope better.

Mum bailed up at taking us anywhere on "holidays" after she had her third child. It wasn't a holiday for her and in fact was more work than usual. She didn't know I was Aspergic and at that stage, I didn't have very many obvious symptoms anyway.

The point I'm making is it's easy to get upset about the world being unfair and God knows, I do it often enough, but there comes a point when you have to call a halt and avoid too many activities that will stress you and your child out.

Oh, if it were my choice, I would not even go to Christmas with the in-laws, believe me!

Do you give him melatonin - it was a great help with my son. He also gets up early EVERY DAY, so it's fantastic to be able to get him to sleep at the right time.

Actually, we did use melatonin on the first trip there. I haven't used it in so long that I forgot all about it this last time. Thanks for the reminder- I will definitely bring it next time.

holidays are so much fun (she says with great sarcasm)!
i am sorry you had to deal with that.
would it be possible to tape a garbage bag or something over the window to stop the light from coming in while you were away? cheap and easy to do. what about one of those machines that do the white noise thing or a fan to try and remove some of the outside noises which probably cause some of the over stimulaiton.
i know it doesn't make things any better, but next time you should kindly ask her to keep her comments to herself, and tell her that she can give you parenting advice when she has her own kids.
Hard to do on your own, and when talking to hubby causes friction extra not good, but this is an issue that needs to be worked out with you two, but i am sure you already know that.
((hug))
but you know that you don't have to worry about it untill next year again so that should relieve some of the stress and let's all hope she's not still there, or perhaps has grown up by then.
Is it possible to have the holidays at your house so it's not so bad for your son, being in a familiar place, or would that not work?
i wish you all the best with this situation, and congrats you've survived another year!

I'd call her on her rudeness in front of everyone, and shame her into either speaking up like a human being, to publicly display her gross ignorance, or to give you a much-deserved apology.

"If you have something to say to me, please say it loud enough for me to hear, or keep your passive-aggressive s**t to yourself." might do nicely. You're an adult, you don't need someone to stand up for you. Stand up for yourself and let her know her proper place, now and for good.

Or say to her, "Here, if you think you can do better, take him for a few minutes and so how you go".

It's also possible he could have disturbances in his sleep/wake cycle and the upsets every morning could be similar to "night terrors". It might be worth seeing a doctor to have this investigated. It's easy enough to face his bed away from the rising sun or have dark curtains if it were simply a reaction to bright light, but it seems that something else is happening as well.