The awareness of “autism” in our lives…
To say we are “ALWAYS” aware is not completely true. (At least for me). Some days it’s just more apparent than others.
Most days, “autism awareness” doesn’t cross my mind at all. It’s just “life.” The things we do for our kids, whether it’s taking them to piano lessons, soccer practice or to therapy, is all just part of life as a parent.
We all fall into our routines, whatever they are, and life moves along.
When I am acutely MORE aware of “autism” in our lives is when we try to “break the routine.”
Because life happens “outside our routines,” and as parents, we try to push our kids out of their comfort zones to try new things so they are better prepared for “life.”
My best friend lives in Maui and we decided to go visit as a family last year.
Most families think of all the FUN they will have going to somewhere like Maui for a week…
I legitimately panicked for months preparing for the trip.
Jonah would not last more than a couple hours in the car with just our family. How on earth did I expect him to last 6 hours (each way) on a plane with a couple hundred other people??
IT SCARED ME TO DEATH.
If it didn’t “work out, ” there was no “comfort zone” to return to. Food aversions would be multiplied in a new setting. EVERYTHING would be new.
It could be traumatising, or it could be A BLAST. We wouldn’t know if we never tried.
If we get too comfortable in our routines, we grow complacent in them, and when “life” happens (as it inevitably will), we are unable to adapt well.
That’s a tough lesson to learn. Heck. That’s a tough lesson to TEACH.
But sometimes, that’s how life will be, so the more practice we ALL have trying new things together, the more comfortable we will be doing it in the future, when the change is unexpected.
“Life” can happen at ANY time.
And so to prepare, we are “aware”
… all the time.
Thanks to H2Au: the stuff of our life for sharing.
(FYI though we had a few bumps in the road, our trip to Maui was better than I EVER could have imagined, and I am so thankful we took the chance and did it).