First of all, she's not feeling 100%. She has a cough which means her asthma is acting up pretty bad. I've been treating her but sometimes it takes WEEKS to get her out of this.
Because of feeling bad, her autism symptoms of being kind of a jerk are off the charts awful.
Add to that school starting this week and she's also off kilter because of that.
Today, I picked her up from school with Aaneqa and we had to immediately leave to run errands. (another schedule change to throw her off)
After a Drs appt where she was surprisingly AWESOME, (Rhys was being seen and Aaneqa was acting up, that made for a GREAT afternoon for Heather ha ha) we went to this spectacular store where they have art classes for kids with special needs. There is a sensory area, sensory products, art work, and a big art area. It was an open house and I had NO Idea what to expect, but I didn't give the kids any reason to have any expectations.
We go in and she's pumped. She wants to do art work. It isn't possible. They aren't doing art for random kids coming in. But at that point, no one was doing art, so it was easy to convince her that it's not possible.
They had a "machine" where you could "catch" money in a sort of wind machine to be able to buy stuff at the store. She was TERRIFIED of it. Rhys went in and won $2. Aaneqa went in and won $17!!! They were all shopping and picking out their "prizes". Heather was super jealous, but couldn't quite bring herself to do it.
Someone came in for an art class. She saw someone else start to do art. She decided, if she went into this machine and won some money she could get an art class and paint. SHE SUCKED IT UP and got into that machine and won herself some money. I was so proud of her.
She wasn't able to get an art class right then though. She got a gift certificate to be able to do an art class another day. She was SO SO SO sad. She melted down and cried.
The lady very politely tried to get Heather to calm down and chill out. She really couldn't paint today.
I took Heather aside and told her that if she could calm down and be really ok with the art class another day she would for sure get art stuff for her birthday (which is today...now that it's midnight) She didn't want to, but she calmed down and picked out a couple of little rings from the store and I went ahead and bought them for her. The lady goes, you didn't get these for throwing a fit did you? I get why she said what she did, but I gotta stand up for my baby and her feelings here. I really do like this organization and I am looking forward to working with them. I feel that if they weren't so busy with all the craziness of the open house it would have worked out better for little Heather. I bear no one any ill will, it was just a rough moment for a little girl having a rough time handling all that was going on around her.
Anyway. . . . I just feel really bad because I know what Heather's thought process was and she actually managed to pull herself together and take it really really well even though she got her little heart broken. I feel like she deals with disappointment a lot and I just want her to be able to see things and know what and why. I am even ok with her being sad, but I hate when she has these fantastic ideas and just KNOWS they will work out and really they just can't.
Ok... That's all for now. I hope I am not just overreacting. If for no other reason because tomorrow is her birthday, I want her to be able to be happy and have a wonderful day where things go HER way!!!
I don't think you're overreacting at all. I think the clerk was though. If it had been in any other store, I would get it. But this lady needs to learn that if she's going to serve the special needs community, things aren't going to work like they did for her when she raised her nice, normal children. Pardon me if I'm overreacting . . .
ReplyDeleteI don't think you are overreacting at all. There was a lot going on around her. I know how Dylan is when his schedule is "interrupted". Proud of my sweet Heather for pulling herself together.
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