I don’t think I think too often about ways our lives are different from other families. Sure — every so often when someone we know talks about taking a trip to a petting zoo or how much their kids loved going to an amusement park and riding all the rides, I think, “Isn’t it funny how they do those things without ever thinking about what it would be like to not be able to do those things?” But, I try to not let Autism have its way with our lives too much. (This is probably me just being clueless though, because I’m sure I have molded our lives to Autism’s whims without even realizing it.)
Another one of those things that makes me feel different is when my kids talk someone’s ear off about a movie that has just come out to the theaters. They talk about different scenes or things that made them laugh. And, of course, the person assumes we saw the movie. But, we didn’t. We’ll wait for it to come out on DVD. Everything my kids know about it comes from commercials and if they found a website about it. Neither Jack nor Molly have ever been to a movie theater. Noah has been twice. The first time, we left after just a few minutes. It was far too overwhelming for him, and as he began to cry and held his ears shut tight, we scurried out of the theater. A couple of years later, we tried again. We *did* stay the whole time, but Noah kept his hands over his ears for a lot of it. When we left, he looked like he had been beaten. He looked miserable, even though he had “wanted” to stay for the whole movie.
Well…this weekend, we had a little slice of “normal.” My family saw a movie, and my kids were THRILLED! It’s official — now when my kids talk about Ratatouille, it will be because they actually saw it!
Now, I will say — we did not go the route that one might expect though. On Saturday morning, I happened to be clicking around on my bookmarks, and happened upon the link to a drive-in movie theater that is about 45 minutes away. I don’t know what made me click on it, but it was surely divine intervention. Imagine my shock that just the night before, Ratatouille had started running there! My kids had been talking so much about it, and here was our opportunity!
We put together some snacks, and headed out on a road trip to the drive in when it was already getting close to bed time. But, the kids had a great time! Noah said, “This was WAY better than the movie theater!”
I will admit, I stayed busy keeping Molly entertained and probably had the least comfortable seat of all of us, but it was definitely the highlight of my week. For at least one night, Autism wouldn’t stop my family from seeing a movie at “the theater” (kind of, anyway), and for that, I am thankful.
No related posts.
