Winter Autism Woes

Posted by Angela | 0 comments

Okay, the DeRossett family needs to literally fly south for the winter. Stick a fork in me, I am done!

Many of our friends and family will attest to the fact that we are not—at all—winter people. My husband and I were already aware of this before he was given orders to the mid-west. We are from Texas. Texas is where we were raised and where two of our four children were born. We got married in 1996 and moved immediately to the desert of southern California and then later to Georgia. The military did not care about our love for the south and blistering hot summers. So this most recent duty station is our first experience–ever—with a ‘real’ winter.

We thought that this new environment would be a pretty cool adventure for the kids. After all, don’t all children love snow? Well, they did for a little while and then the novelty wore off. My daughter, Milan, asked repeatedly our first winter, why the snow “was still there”. I am so thankful to be a homeschooling mother because the snow pants, gloves, scarves…boots, would be the makings of a nightmarish assembly line in the mornings. We don’t have to venture out in the snow. We can still hide out in the warm house!

It totally blew our summer plans because the water was in the 70′s and who wants to swim in that?! Our rule in the other states has always been, “no swimming unless it is 90 degrees outside”. Now we only get a handful of those. Not such a cool adventure for the family who loves to take the boat out to the lake. Xander, my 8 year old son on the spectrum, especially loves the summer. For him there is nothing like tubing* with his brothers, being smacked against the waves and then the high-speed flip into the water!

The boy loves adventure, but not the snow, and especially not now.

Before we get to the how’s and why’s, let me first clear one thing up for those from the north who are laughing at the southern girl. Southerners do not hide out when we get a little ice or snow because we are babies. Everything shuts down because this happens so rarely that our cities are not equipped to take care of the problem. Ice melt? Snow plows? Long-handled ice scrapers for the driveway? These are new to our family. Several feet of snow? It brings me to a clueless, crying panic. Oh yes, I am woman enough to admit to that. What happens when a southerner meets black ice? People die. There are valid reasons for us to stay at home.

My kids are over the snow, just like their parents.

Around Christmas we got a lot of it, and still more took us into the New Year, and they are forecasting some more this week. I have resigned myself to the fact that the Christmas lights will be up until have our first thaw because they are held in place by foot and a half long icicles. Do you remember on A Christmas Story where Ralphie is trying to explain to his mother that it was an icicle that injured his face when it was actually the Red Ryder BB Gun? His mother responds:

“Ralphie, you’re lucky it didn’t cut your eye! Those icicles have been known to kill people.”

Guess what happens when you have a child with Autism that takes this phrase literally? It will not matter that he has a better chance of being hit by a bus than the above scenario playing out. It will scare the fire out of him.

Little did I know– Xander remembered that part of the movie.

It did not help that I was joking about something similar with the kids and telling them not to look up when they passed under the icicles. It did not help when we joked that it would not matter if anyone looked up or down, it would still “get to the brain”. Cut me some slack, I have three boys. Last night when we returned from a few hours (Okay, 30 minutes) of shopping for video games I heard a small voice:

“Mom, those things are scary.”

I told him to hurry past them. It was cold outside so my only concern was getting inside. He ran right up to the door and pressed his entire body against it. The icicles were four feet behind him! I am not sure he will ever want to go outside and face them again because he is absolutely traumatized. Don’t think this has gone unnoticed by his brothers who think it’s hilarious.

Ah yes, I forgot, this is not only the child who loves the thrill of the ride, but also the child who is terrified of losing body parts (trimming his fingernails) and having blood drawn (they might take it all).

I think the boy has a special kind of hatred for the winter that none of us have reached yet.

Lesson learned, Lord, please bring on the spring!

*For those of you from the north, ‘tubing’ involves being pulled behind the boat in an  oversized ‘tube’. This can also be a raft or any other floating device a person can hold onto. You hold on to (said object) for dear life because the driver of the boat’s sole goal is make you fly off … and it’s fun.

Angela DeRossett is a fun-loving, married to the military, homeschooling mother of four. She has four cats and a great big dog and loves her very full house. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Christian Education and holds a Bachelor’s of Arts and Science in Christian Ministries. Angela is a coffee and theology junkie and is passionate about Autism advocacy and disability rights. You can find her blogging at Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy and Homeschooling the Chaotic Mommy.