To the Couple who Autism-Shamed Us at Lunch

Today was my son’s day to be the Special Person in his 4K classroom.

This is a very big deal for a 4-year-old! The special person gets to bring in toys and books to share with friends. They get to be the line leader. And they get to invite Mom and Dad into the room to participate.

We watched as our son interacted with his typical peers. We watched as the smile spread across his face. This was a good day. And a great reason to celebrate!

We usually avoid eating in restaurants. There are so many unpredictable variables. So many things that we cannot control. We often feel judged by people around us. And since we already spend a considerable amount of time judging ourselves, we try to avoid the extra judgment. Today we put all of that aside and we went to lunch as a family to celebrate our special person.

We walked into the restaurant, and my son told the hostess exactly which table he wanted. We sat down together. Almost immediately, Grayson started to make loud noises. He was hungry and excited and adjusting to the new environment.

My husband and I went into our usual auto-pilot “situation management” mode. We quickly began redirecting our son to calm him down. We tried to tune out all that was happening around us. But some things are hard to tune out

You were hard to tune out.

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To finish reading the full story, visit the Huffington Post: Parents website: http://huff.to/2fQ0jOS.