Saturday, January 30, 2010

Par-tay, Par-tay...


So, it may seem odd to you that I'm so excited about the fact that my six year old went to a birthday party today.

But I am. I am. I am.

This is not the first invitation (did I mention the school we are at is wonderful?) but it is the first one that Billy decided he would accept. I'm always offending parents by telling them that Billy's idea of hell is a kids birthday party, so we should probably say no... but this Mother wouldn't accept my apology and said we should come, and see what happens.

So, we did. Actually I didn't, I had to work. But Billy and he-who-thinks-blogs-are-stupid went. And perhaps that was the key to a successful adventure. No mummy fuss.

There were reptiles (big drawcard) and a dog (I'm guessing not in the same place as the reptiles)... so the prospect of lots of kids was a little less daunting. I also sent them with the most successful possible present (didn't want any grade 1 back-room talk about Billy's daggy present choices)...

And here's the best bit of the party story. When it was sing Happy Birthday time, the reptile lady suggested all the kids sing as loudly as they could. And one boy, who is in Billy's class at school stood up and said, 'No. We can't sing loud. That would upset Billy.'

That alone makes me confident that Billy will live in a better adult world than I do... that a child was willing to stand up and make a claim for his sensory needs, to advocate for him... that's pretty sweet.

And so, like a selected few of his classmates, Billy came back home with a snake tattoo, a bag of Hershey's chocolate, a plastic eyeball and a bunch of stories abut everything that happened.

Very exciting.

Of course, now we have set a precedent. Now we have to engage with this whole birthday party game, which - to be honest, I was hoping I could avoid. I thought this could be one of the upsides to autism... now we have to give birthday parties too.

Ah well... as long as he's happy!


2 comments:

Mich9 said...

Bless that friend of Billy's that was sensitive to his needs. I wish there were more kids like that one! And I am so glad Billy had a great time at the party. He, and you, should be so proud!!! Yea!

Lisa said...

Did I ever tell you about the time we had a party, and our birthday boy wanted to have a massive food fight as one of the activities?
Yes, I also have a non-ASD, sensory-seeking kid?

We made buckets of sloppy jelly, water balloons, instant pudding, etc.

One of the guests was ASD... and his mum was very nervous when she dropped him off for the party. It may have been the kid's first party invite. She was trying to explain in a roundabout way about autism. The whole tentative 'how much do I say, and how will strangers react' thing.

So we allocated him the job of 'sniper' for the food fight - hiding around the corner and throwing water balloons, which he thought was a great idea. We had an adult as his defence backup.

At some stage during the fight, he completely forgot about hiding, and came out from his safe spot. A little bit. And got hit. A little bit.

Then his mum arrived to pick up her son, finding him with green jelly dripping from his hair, and a blob of chocolate pudding on his arm, and a grin from ear to ear.

Her look was priceless.