Autism Awareness April 3rd

One thing that autistic children are not is flexible. They are schedule and routine loving people, and thrive with those two things. 

We have a pretty good routine. One of Naomi's favorite parts of her routine is her speech therapy that we go to on Thursdays.

Last night we got her to stay in bed by telling her she had to go to sleep so she could wake up and see Natalie (her therapist). This morning we got her in the clothes *we* wanted her in by telling her Natalie wanted to see that pretty dress. We drove all the way to Seattle with her asking every few minutes how much longer until she saw Natalie. When we got to the hospital where her therapy is, she got so excited and said "yay!" Then we got upstairs to check in, just to find out nobody called us to tell us therapy was cancelled this week.

Autistic children are not flexible. Today we narrowly avoided one of the worst melt down, freak out, kicking and screaming tantrums... Because I told Naomi we would do anything she wanted, besides see Natalie. She cried. She started to freak out. It took every trick I've learned, but we avoided it. Today was nothing short of a miracle.

Folks, that's life with autism. I swore I'd never be that type of parent. I swore my kids would learn to deal with disappointment. When living with autism, you learn to pick your battles very carefully, and you figure out when the battle is not worth it and do whatever is needed to maintain order. 

Thankfully Naomi wanted to play with friends, and we just so happened to have a friend that could play. Like I said, today was a miracle. The last time this happened, I left carrying a kicking and screaming child that I almost dropped repeatedly, and she screamed the entire way home, because NOTHING was good enough to replace what she had planned out in her mind.

We have dealt with this in other areas, too. It is because of her inability to cope with the disappointment of something she is told is going to happen not happening that I never tell my kids what we are doing until we are there. That's life with autism. You learn to avoid the let down. You learn to just give in and buy them ice cream to eat in your freshly cleaned car because you forgot five days ago you said you'd buy them a treat the next time you went to the grocery store, and they remembered. You learn to pick your battles and work within their challenges, and you learn that despite the disapproving comments and looks, that it's ok.