If you are seeing a lot of people wearing blue or turning blue on social media (and they are not discussing Obamacare) it is most likely due to the fact that today is World Autism Awareness Day!

This morning I was walking up the stairs at Caleb’s school behind a father and son when the son suddenly dropped to the floor like a limp noodle and blocked the stairs. The father calmly pulled his son to his feet and was greeted with fists. There were two ways to go here…I could have turned to Eric and rolled my eyes or huffed about having to wait a microsecond while this dad got his son safely out of the way OR I could smile sympathetically, let him handle it and then go on my way. I chose option 2 and within a few seconds I was up the stairs…no harm, no foul.

Yesterday, the ASD program at Caleb’s school attended the Circus of the Senses. They had a great time and Caleb even let me ask 2 questions about it before he told me, “I’m all done.” That’s huge, he hates answering questions!

Anyway…the kids all took the Red Line to get to the circus, this was easily the most highly anticipated part of the trip for Caleb. Sometimes it can take a bit of time to get yourself through the gates at the T stations, often they are crowded and when you have a bunch of kids with no impulse control…well…it can get a little extra chaotic. There was a young man in his mid-20’s who got caught behind the kids and chaperones and he found his way blocked. There were two ways to go here…he could have begun muttering under his breath some not so very nice things and tried to push his way around the group or he could have waited the extra couple of moments and then gone on his way. This young man chose option 1 and, when he tried to pass the kids, one of them moved unexpectedly and he TRIPPED over the child and ended up face first on the floor of the T Station.

So, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you can’t tell if you are looking at a child who is out of control because they have autism or if you are looking at a child who is out of control because they are brats…the safe bet is to just assume autism. Just take a breath, pull your head out of your ass and thank your lucky stars that, while you might be minorly inconvenienced in that moment, the child is under a massive amount of stress while he or she fights their body to do something you do every single day without even thinking about it.

So there is my autism tip of the day…

Just zip it and move along.

Happy World Autism Awareness Day!