Today is a "Go Nowhere" day although the term is strictly relative considering I will be making four trips to school.
I have a routine - don't all parents of autistic kids do?? - of standing in the bedroom hallway after I have said my good nights to the kids and announcing - not too quietly lest the pre-teenagers complain that they didn't hear me - the agenda for the following day.
"Tomorrow is a Go Nowhere day."
A faint "yea" emanates from somewhere - possibly from within my own head.
"Go Nowhere" days are essential to my family's overall being. The base of a house of cards. In a world that lunges forward on full throttle almost every day with therapy, girl scout and boy scout happenings, gymnastics, Battle of the Books, and any other semi-important-will-die-if-we-skip event, "Go Nowhere" days are a welcome respite. Of course, any day that I can spend in my pajama pants is a day worth getting out of bed for and living to its fullest.
We joke that the house better not burn down on a "Go Nowhere" day because Sean would gripe about having to then go somewhere....
He needs these days. Days where he can come home from school and let his guard down and be his true autistic self. Days where he can grab his MP3 player, listen to some music, and walk around the house. Days where he can talk to himself in his room for hours. He can fidget. He can play computer games.
Do I break the magic spell that "Go Nowhere" days cast and tell Sean that on these days he does indeed go somewhere? He goes back to his world. A world where he's comfortable and doesn't have to conform to whatever definition of "normal" is for that day. A world that he understands and we don't.
What's wrong with believing in a little bit of magic?
I will spend the day catching up on laundry after yesterday's poop and puke fest courtesy of Smokey. Later I might even get on the exercise bike and try to ride off that extra piece of cake I had over the weekend.
Then again, that would involve me changing out of my pajama pants.....
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