Sunday 18 October 2009

Ice-Cream Meltdown on a Cold Sunday afternoon

There is a God. I have proof.

Today we visited my husband's parents in rural Cambridgeshire. (Well, fairly rural and certainly not in town. You'll see the relevance later... ) H was in a really twitchy mood, everything was bothering him and he was not happy to be fobbed off with his world of Pokemon on the DSi, needing instead to point out at every available opportunity how distressed he was. He even resorted to some echolalia and stimming, which I find rather unnerving since we are definitely seeing some regressive Autistic behaviour which I hadn't been prepared for.

My in-laws live a quiet life and an invasion of a large family must be a challenge for them at the best of times, but H was not built with any type of volume control and tries the patience of most older people on a good day. Today was not one of those days.

At lunchtime he decided he needed ice cream for dessert. In fact, skip the main course and forget the cutlery, he just needed ice cream. Now.

After realising there was no way of explaining the reality he chose to ignore (that there was none) and the implausibility of his preferred parallel universe (where we magically produced or made some) we tried ignoring him. But anyone who has a child with an ASD will know the odds of this tactic succeeding are about as good as winning the Lottery! Some chemistry experiments and playing yo-yos with spiders (don't ask) with Granddad helped buy us some time (Granddad is now recovering with a stiff drink in a horizontal position no doubt) but by 4pm we were running out of ideas and H was NOT running out of steam. 

And that's when we heard the most bizarre of sounds in a smart Cambs village cul de sac full of retired people and very few children. On a rather chilly Sunday afternoon. It was an ice cream van.....

So there you have it. Irrefutable proof that there is a benevolent God. One who realised the desperate nature of our situation and came to the rescue. Perhaps this God has an appreciation of life on the Autistic Spectrum or at least some experience of dealing with those on it. Pity then that I don't have his number for next time....



What was it Jerry Springer said? "I know of nobody who is purely Autistic or purely neurotypical. Even God had some Autistic moments, which is why the planets all spin."

7 comments:

  1. Oh dear! I do wonder how you do it...and now you have a new blog too! Where DO you find the time? It makes me tired thinking about it!! I am glad there is an ice cream god out there for you! ;)

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  2. Ice cream always saves the day! Thanks for sharing this story =)

    #LetKidsBeKids

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  3. If there was ever proof of a higher power...! I'm glad that van saved the day, and I've not seen that quote before, I like it x #LetKidsBeKids

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  4. There is a God. Ice cream is not the sort of thing that you can magically find in the bottom of your bag when you need it. Really love the Jerry Springer quote. #LetKidsBeKids

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  5. Thank goodness for ice cream and an ice cream van in spring!
    Thanks for sharing #LetKidsBeKids

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  6. I love the picture! Thank god for ice cream vans! That is a great quote, it certainly does make you think xx

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  7. I am not religious but I can almost believe in God after reading this ... for you and your son and your family at least!

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Many thanks for taking the time to comment, I really value your responses.

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