Sometimes....

H is a homebird, he doesn't like to go out, occasionally I will ask him if he would like to go and eat lunch and usually he will say 'No', I don't bother asking him if he wants to go out in the evening because that would be a waste of breath.He just doesn't have fun and if someone isn't having fun, well there isn't much point in doing it is there?

So imagine how I felt when today, he came back from dropping the boys at school and said "Hey! I bought tickets for tonight...to a magic show!" he said it with such joy and was so pleased with himself because LOOK! I used my initiative and I bought TICKETS with my own MONEY and we can all go out as a family!

Good grief.

If there are 2 things I can actually admit to hating, they would be Jazz music and Magic shows.

I don't dislike those 2 things, I actually hate them, right up there with boils and toothache.

What a quandary. Put my foot down in a " MAGIC SHOW? Are you INSANE???? WHAT THE HELL?" kind of way, go for the pained silence, all "*sigh* how lovely, of course I hate magic but we must do family things and so I will go and smile and *sigh* ( which is sort of the route I took, along with a huge headache that would have been an ideal excuse) But he was so pleased with himself and the boys were so ,excited so I went with barely a mention of " How LOVELY! I must remember to have daddy enjoy 2 hours of Celine Dion with me very soon!"

Much excitement at being allowed to park in the playground at school how WICKED!

We got OK seats and we watched the poorly attired clowns terrify toddlers, we greeted Naughty Nathan who seemed to think he would be sitting with us, until we explained that it was the law that children had to sit with their own parents, which was disappointing because we would LOVE to have him sit with us and keep us company for 2 hours while we watched magic, that would have really made the whole evening perfect, so we enjoyed 5 minutes of jumper pulling and face smacking and uproarious gaiety and then sent him back 4 rows to sit with his mother.

At 6.30 on the dot the fun began...I resisted the urge to check the clock until I felt sure there was some hope of it telling me it was time to go home, only to discover that I had only been there for 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes.

You know when a 3 or 4 year old has suddenly had enough of life and it flings itself on the floor with a roar of disapproval? When nothing on earth will placate it and you know that this is all going to end badly? That's how I felt. I tried, I really did. I made every effort to force the corners of my mouth to turn upwards and give the impression of how much fun this all was but it didn't work. I texted back and forth with Cathy for a while and I did enjoy 2 minutes when Seth went on stage, he was having fun and that was lovely.



Then.....in the most glorious and heart lifting way, Eli sat with me and he said " Oh I want to go home! It is too loud and I am tired and I want to go home" and my heart sang, I put on my most sincere frowny smile and asked if he meant it ..and he DID he wanted to go home. I was brave and selfless and offered to take him home and then Isaac said " It's 7 o'clock, it's dessert time and I have to go to bed at 8.30 and this won't finish until 8.30pm and I don't want to be here because it is dessert time and this is very loud and can I go home?"
Autism is sometimes a very beautiful thing and you won't find me arguing with routine on a night like tonight.