Misunderstood

Just a quick post tonight cuz I'm super tired but have something I want to get off my chest.

We took Zoey to Great Wolf Lodge (an indoor water park) today for our niece's kind of birthday celebration. On our way home Scott and I were talking about a meltdown she had today and hard it is because she probably just looked like a terribly  behaved child. See what happened is that we were looking for her cousin to go on a slide but when we found them they were in the lazy river and Zoey thought that meant we were going there next. When we tried to get her out of the water, she refused to go and had a meltdown when Scott pulled her out of the water. Now anyone watching that scene probably just saw another bratty child throwing a fit because they were told no. However, with Zoey, it's not as simple as that. The meltdown had nothing to do with being told no. It was that she thought we were going in the river and because of the rigid thinking that comes with her diagnosis, that was where we needed to be. People don't see that in her mind, she has tunnel vision and until that task is completed that is all she can see. They don't see that when we pull her away from what she thinks is supposed to happen it creates great anxiety about what will happen next. They don't see her repeatedly asking " what's the schedule" and us having to tell her exactly what we are going to do up until we get home and go to bed. They don't understand that her little nerves are already all out of whack because she is in sensory overload from all the noise and things going on around her. She's just another bratty kid . Sometimes even I forget because she's high functioning and the majority of the  time has minimal issues.

I think all families that are affected by Autism go through this. I hear things all the time about people staring as their kid has a meltdown. I've wanted to make a sign that says "stare harder maybe you'll cure her autism". It's an annoying and frustrating fact of our life. People will stare and people will judge.