Apologizing For Autism? All The Time....

   Chances are if you are raising an autistic child, you find yourself constantly apologizing to people when your out in public.If my son is unaware of his surroundings because he is focused on something, I apologize to who he might be standing in front of. Out to eat and he runs right up to someone's table interrupting there meal, I apologize to them and redirect him. Just a couple examples but sometimes I feel like I have spent the better part of my day apologizing to random people for not taking a parenting approach a typical child would react to.

    Now that my brain is cram packed full of autism information I notice more and more families who have an autistic child. Chances are you are around many yourself and you might not see it.Last week I went shopping alone. A women was walking in ahead of me with a boy who was maybe seven years old. Mom was letting him set the pace and I could see they had a system. He walked into the store slowly checking out the floor and cautiously grabbed a cart, which he had to handle a certain way. Mom stood back and gave him space to do what he needed to. People were waiting for them since the process was slow and starting to stack up around them. The mom looked at me and apologized so I smiled and told her no reason to, and she apologized to two more people just trying to get through the second door. Both of which were not so considerate of her allowing her child to set the pace.
I knew what she was doing and she was doing it really well, but the lack of understanding in society puts some parents in apology mode.

    There are days I can't even count how many times I have apologized to people and most of the time there really isn't a reason for it. What I am really doing is defending my child for what people don't understand and I don't have time to explain. Apologizing to society one person at a time for lack of understanding, when what I really want is to build a understanding so I don't feel like I have to apologize everywhere I go. Even If the only way to build that understanding is also, one person at a time.