Cabin Fever

Cabin Fever

I’m bored!  Everyone knows what it’s like to hear their child say this after a long day at home with nothing to do.  Now think of the exact opposite behavior.  That is my son.

If my son was allowed to, he would remain in my house wandering through his daily routines and their appropriate spaces day after day after day and be content to never leave the house again for the rest of his life.  This would be perfect!  That means nothing would EVER change!  Wow!  That would be just awesome!  For him yes, but not so much the rest of the family.

So as you can imagine, if you have a child that prefers being at home and has great difficulty in public, you spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to entertain yourself at home.  So, I live at home, I work at home, I parent at home, and my entertainment most of the time is at home.

This makes for some crazy people sometimes.

After a few years of raising my son my husband and I realized that there would be a lot of places and things we could not go and do.  So began our process of collecting everything we needed to enjoy most aspects of life here at home.  The weight room was made complete over the years, the movie collecting began and accumulated to massive proportions, the board game cabinet filled up quickly with all the newest and funniest family games, the video games were purchased, the yard games installed, the at home sports fields designated, and life went on.  Very happily life went on.  After all, everything I need is here, right?  I don’t have to go anywhere at all really.  I even work here!  Great!  Simple and easy.

That’s true right up until you want to pull your hair out if you have to look at the same walls for one more minute. Suddenly out of the blue with no warning at all you feel like the walls are closing in on you and that your childhood memories of being “so bored you could die” have come true and you will indeed die from not leaving your house or ever seeing another human being again.

It sounds so dramatic!  It sounds so desperate!  Well, every once in a while, it truly is.  When the outings are so few and far between that you really don’t remember when the last one was, it starts to wear on you.  So when my family and I see fit to venture out and brave whatever meltdown occurs in the process, it’s a really, really big deal!  This is a special occasion all on its own!  Being out away from the house is like a gift straight from heaven.  So out my family and I go excited about every little nuance we encounter on our great journey! 

I am in absolute rapture watching the whole family enjoy themselves and everyone involved is careful to do everything my son needs to prevent upsetting him and having to return home early.  At this point every member of the family at the same time feels the same emotion.  Appreciation.  Appreciation for absolutely everything around us.  The parks, the stores, the restaurants, the music, the water, the sidewalks, the traffic;  every piece is enjoyed.  This is when the whole family starts spotting assholes!  Look at this pile of assholes out here acting like they don’t understand how lucky they are to be in that store shopping!  Look at this pile of assholes dining in that restaurant like its just some sort of regular event!  Look at that pile of assholes over there not even smiling or enjoying themselves while they buy that ice cream and walk in the park.  How dare they not appreciate this?  How dare they make this wonderful outing of ours seem ordinary or usual.  How dare all of them stare at us in amazement of how much fun we are all having wandering around the city shopping center!  Assholes!  All of them are assholes! (haha)

For more check out the book "Autism and Assholes"