Managing Autism - A Personal View

How can you say no to that….?

Well, that’s what I thought anyway - This will be easy, a quick trip to the pool to wear them out and then enjoy a peaceful afternoon at home.

I told Elissa that we were off to the pool, and she gave me that “are you completely insane?” look, but then proceeded to pack the kids bags in record time and wave ever so sweetly as we drove down the street. Looking back this should have been my first clue……….

We arrive at the Pool, and get a park right out the front (first win to me!). The kids unload themselves, and charge into the building determined to beat each other into the water. I run after them, stopping only to pick up the 3 toddlers, 2 grandmothers, and 1 mother that had rather selfishly got in between my kids and the water!

After apologising to all involved, I make my way over to the attendant to pay the entry fee. I explained that my kids were already on the way to the pool and I needed to pay for them. I pointed them out, just in time for the attendant to witness the 2 of them doing “blowfish’s” on the beautiful clean windows for all to see! He then gave me another one of those “are you completely insane?” looks and passed on my receipt. In hindsight, this should have been clue number 2…….

The pool was very quiet (second win to me!), and apart from a couple of other families we were pretty much alone…….. or so I thought. Within about 15 minutes of us hitting the water, it turned into peak hour in the pool - we had water aerobics classes, swimming lessons, swimming training, birthday parties and to top it off a very large inflatable jumping castle placed in the deep end of the pool. What had been my ideal trip to the pool, had very quickly turned into my worst night mare (the kids thought it was great!).

Before I could plan our speedy exit, I think my kids sensed my fear and developed a very clever tactic - take off as fast as we can, in completely opposite directions (one may get caught, but at least the other gets a start on dear old dad!). I have to make a split second decision - do I just leave and pretend that they’re not my kids (not really, but sometimes it would be nice!) or which one do I chase first?

I capture Anna first, and make sure that she is safely away from the water, and begin the chase down of Jack. He is not hard to spot…. not only at this stage is he the only one running at full speed along the pool, but he has also decided the swimming shorts are not aerodynamic for a fast get away and has dispensed of them into the pool!

At this stage, I can also see the target of his getaway……. The Giant Inflatable Jumping Castle. With Anna under one arm, I start to gain ground on him. I try and ignore all the stares from the other adults (and laughter) - I get within 5 metres of him as he takes his first step onto the jumping castle, I just missed him. I must admit, the site was very amusing….. 1 naked boy did manage to clear the entire jumping castle, and proceeded to have a great time jumping about all by himself!

Eventually, I managed to get a hold of him and marched my 2 children out of the pool - after such a experience, I was just looking forward to getting back to the car. Just as we were reaching the door to leave (after a nice young girl had fished out the offending shorts), we passed a couple of elderly sunbathers out on the grass - My little girl turns to me, and says at the top of her voice “Dad, why doesn’t their skin fit?” (she was referring to their wrinkles).

I did not look back, but from the laughter I know that the whole pool probably heard the question… I could not get in the car quick enough, and arrived home to a very relaxed wife “Did you have a good time?” - I then explained the events to her. That was about 3 hours ago, and I think she is still laughing as I write this.

Luckily, I love my kids unconditionally and even as I write this I can’t wait for our next little adventure!  

     Steve

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 8:07 am and is filed under Dad's View, Personal Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.