Friday, February 8, 2008

A Glimpse...

of how hard it can be to be the mom of a child like Ryan.

We went to McDonald's today, with the play area. We haven't been in a long time...well before Christmas. Ryan had had a good day so far, but I was still keeping a close eye on him...as close as I could with him crawling around in enclosed tubes. At about the 25 minute mark, I was searching for Ryan to check in on him (as I'd been doing every few minutes), and I noticed a girl crying and an angry looking mom. I found Ryan and as I was checking in with him, the mom came up to me and asked me if Ryan was my son. I said yes, and she angrily told me that Ryan had hit her daughter for no reason and made her cry. "She's just little, and he's obviously big enough to know better. " (For the record, her neice as it turned out, was nearly 5). I apologized profusely and explained to her that we would be leaving and that Ryan has Asperger's...and her very angry reply was that he shouldn't be allowed to play with other kids if that was the case.

Yeah, I know that I shouldn't care what other people think, but when faced with these kinds of comments I can't help NOT care. How can I NOT help but project these kinds of reactions onto other moms of kids that Ryan might hurt, when these comments aren't rare to begin with?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you gotten Ryan a weighted vest yet? I posted on the other board as well but didn't want you to miss it. I worked with a girl who used a fishing vest as a weighted vest. She used small ankle weights to put it in the slots. This allowed for starting with the max the OT recommmended and decreasing the weight slowly over the time recommended.

Julie(twosproutsandabeanie)

its.me.heather said...

I agree... I know they are expensive but the weighted items we have for Marisa have been worth their weight in gold - literally. She sleeps all night *with the large blanket which was uber expensive but amazing* which in turn improves her daily behavior and she has a lap mat for school while she sits in her chair.. Also a rubbing stone for when she just needs to move or get some stimulation but can't get up and do that.