The Autism News | Special Guest

By Anna Olson, Mother of AJ, Marlo and Husband Ian

I was inspired to write this article because someone complimented us on what amazing parents we are. We sure appreciated the compliment, but all parents have their fair share of ooops moments. We, as special needs parents, are under such tremendous pressure to continue to do more. We are told “if you do x, you increase your kid’s chance of living a better life”. It’s certainly great to push yourselves and do the best for your child; but remember to pace yourselves and try to laugh at these humbling moments.

Our son is mostly non verbal, very smart and has no sense of danger. It’s tough keeping an eye on him 24 hours a day. He is an escape artist and has a history of climbing on high places. One weekend we’d been particularly frustrated with AJ’s escaping out of the back yard. So we reinforced the inside and backyard like Fort Knox. We were exhausted. At this age AJ was still pretty distant. We weren’t sure how much he was taking in what was going on around him. Satisfied in our accomplishments for the day, my husband took off to release some frustration in golf. I laid down exhausted on the couch for a few minutes of respite. Less than 10 minutes later, I heard the door bell ring. I was surprised as we get few unplanned visitors. I went to the front door, undid the many locks and looked out on the front porch. Low and behold there is AJ on the front porch, smiling like a Cheshire cat and giggling uncontrollably.

On another occasion, my husband and I were tired from a long day at work and home. Our son LOVES water. We desperately needed a break so we ran a bath for him. I remember the moment so distinctly. We had just sat down on the couch in the next room and looked at each other and released a big sigh. We took in a few lovely moments of silence knowing the kids were safe. We suddenly heard AJ singing a familiar Dora the Explorer song “bate bate chocolate”. We smiled with the sound of his angelic voice. We rarely heard him speak but for singing a favorite cartoon theme song. Suddenly, we both sat up straight with a look of horror in our eyes. We lept from the couch in unison and raced to the bathroom. As we suspected, AJ was carefully piling bits of “chocolate” on his head. Let me tell you, getting the smell of poo out of one’s hair takes days.

Moral of the story; stay humble, do the best you can, pace yourselves and try to enjoy the ooops moments. None of us are perfect but effort sure counts. Gosh knows our family has plenty of funny stories to share if you are ever short one.

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