Why I hate going to the store: Reason #3

Who’s idea was it to put toys and candy on display in grocery store check-out stands?!  Whoever thought of this “wonderful” sales technique obviously didn’t have children!

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Why I hate going to the store–Reason #1

I really love this time of year.  I love the fall and Thanksgiving.  This is the time of year when I am finally ready to see Christmas lights and listen to Christmas music.  The stores almost to ruin it for people when they put out Christmas decorations toward the end of September.  It’s aggravating enough for adults, but can you imagine how confusing it is for an autistic child? 

In the middle of October, I took Matt on a planned trip to the store to pick out a pumpkin to carve. “Mommy, I want Christmas tree, like that!”  Matt says happily pointing at the pretty display in the store.  “It’s a pretty Christmas tree.”, I said,  “And we will get a Christmas tree after Thanksgiving.  Today we will pick out a pumpkin to carve for Halloween.” 

 Matt looked at me as if I were crazy.  “Hey, it’s not pumpkin time, it’s Christmas time, see? ”  Again, points over to the Christmas display at the store.  He was almost in a panick because he felt like the order of events was changing on him and if we didn’t get a tree right then, we might miss Christmas.  I felt a meltdown coming on in the store as he did his pre-freakout dance.  Grrrr, I thought to myself,  STUPID RETAIL STORE!!!

I finally got him outside to the gardening section where they sold all the pumpkins.  “See Matthew,  if we don’t get a pumpkin now, we will miss making it’s face and putting a candle in it for Halloween time.”

 He began to relax and smiled when he saw all the pumpkins.  Then as he got closer, I saw his eyes dart from one pumpkin to the other and then back to the first. He couldn’t decide.  He would point to one and then when he saw it’s imperfection, he would get upset…….”nooooooooo”  He said. I chose another, and another.  I couldn’t ignore the strange look I was getting from another shopper. Surely she was thinking,  “What a spoiled brat. ”

I sure wish people would just come out and say what they are thinking.  That way I can give them a piece of my own mind. After inspecting about 8 pumpkins, Matt finally decides on a winner.  With a sigh of relief I put the pumpkin in the cart  where Matt  proudly held onto it.  Thank you, Lord.  That could have turned out much worse. 

………..Stupid retail store!!!!

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Dancing in the sniper tower

Wake up at 4am–check

Make coffeee—check

Tell Matt to put his clothes back on—check

Shut the bedroom door so that Alec isn’t woken up by a potential Matthew Meltdown—check

Matthew has added a new activity to his regular rigid morning routine. You see, we have this extra story in our house that comes off the second floor.  The stairs lead up to a small room and in that room, there are several windows  that display a fabulous view of the neighborhood and mountains.  This is one of the features that attracted us to this home.  We love this tower-like room. Although we don’t call it a “tower” because that seems a bit pretentious.  So we call it a sniper tower. Oddly enough that seems less disturbing to me 😉 

For the past 3 days Matt  has enjoyed going up to the sniper tower to listen to Christmas music and dance.  Sweet, isn’t it?  The thing is, he doesn’t want to go up there unless he has an audience.  That’s fine, I always enjoy watching him dance.   But now we are on day 4 and if I have to listen to the mind-numbing tune of Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas Song one more time, I’m gonna throw myself off this sniper tower.  

But Matt and I made a deal.  I would go up and watch him dance to 2 songs, if he would be patient and let me drink my coffee without having a meltdown.  So instead of complaining, I guess I should be glad to have another form of leverage that will encourage positive behavior.

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