Where do we go from here

Being a mom of a special needs child, it is very difficult not to look at what you are missing out on. We are a normal family from the outside. Mother, Father, Daughter, Son. Mother and Father both work outside the home. We come home, make dinner, get the kids ready for bed, clean dinner dishes, put kids to bed and then soon after we fall asleep ourselves. We have a daughter who does before and after school activities. We both have meetings at work and sometimes work late or have to travel for our work or other professional interests. We save most of our family chores for the weekend when we have days off that we can devote to all the things we missed during the week...food shopping, laundry, cleaning, yard work and sometimes we have time left over for something fun.

What are those choices? We can take our daughter to a movie if one of us stays home with Daniel since he doesn't really like loud noises and would probably talk during the movie (we don't really know since we've never taken him). We can take the kids to the playground and there is a nearby special needs playground nearby that both kids love. This proves to be a nice hour to hour and a half excursion if it is a nice day--not too hot and not too cold. The children's museum is indoors but our daughter has outgrown it and for the most part Daniel is not interested.

Having Alison first spoiled us in many ways--she had/has such an imagination and was/is able to play for hours on end with just a stick and a rock. Daniel has never really been into toys until more recently but not as much. We can see him play for maybe a half hour tops but then it always comes back to TV.

Yes, the dreaded television. Daniel has become so into television and it is part our fault as well because what do you do with a boy who does not like toys much and who doesn't walk or play with other peers on the weekend? Where do we go from here? We are stuck. We have a rut so to speak. What do we do? We are not in a position to spend much money so going places that require a lot of money is not really an option. We want to get out, be active, do more with our kids but how? With Daniel how? We need help. We need something to save us from the spiral that we are going down.