OK, so I have a child that doesn’t like clothes….and it doesn’t help that he is 14 years of age. I mean he has always had an issue with keeping his clothes on but when your little you can get away with it. When your “14” it can cause some heads to turn!
People always say look at your child’s talent and then push them in that direction, well MALE stripper was not what I was thinking about. If it was up to Ciré he would walk around town in his birthday suit, but I don’t think my little Island of Bermuda is ready for that one.
Over the last couple of weeks my boy has been stripping down to his birthday suit in the car! So what is a mother to do in this instance. There are times when I have to leave him in the car so I can run into the store to pick up his lunch, I try to make the trip 5 mins or less and I prep everything so that he is comfortable in the time that i am gone. I usually wind the windows down to a comfortable level so that air is blowing through, If he has on a long sleeve shirt I take it off so that he is just in his vest, I give him his ipad so that he has entertainment and then I start the mad dash into the store. Sometime I walk off and then stop a few feet behind the car just to see if he will start stripping and you can bet that he does. I run back, give him the evil eye, and then help him put the clothes back on. He always has this big grin on his face like “Dang she caught me” and then acts so innocent that i have to laugh! When he is dressed again i do the mad dash again into the store and pray that he is all clothed when i get back. What do you think I find, one naked child chillin in the car BUT still has the seat belt on! Yup seat belt in place like this is the way driving is suppose to be. Free and uninhibited!!!
Well it looks like I have a lot more work to do with the “Keeping the clothes on while your in the Car” lesson. Now I’m going to have to break the whole process down to make sure that when he keeps the clothes on he is rewarded and when he takes them off there are consequences! Who’d have thought that this was one of the lessons that would become a part of the teaching repertoire, but I guess it is.
How do you explain to the public that the 14 year old kid in the front seat, naked but still wearing his seat belt is ok because he has Autism, when what they see is a teenager that is exposing himself to the public. This job is hard, but so worth it. Cause in the next couple of months when my boy is chillin in the front seat and I come out of the store to see him fully dressed I will celebrate another one of the little things that so many others take for granted.
And if that doesn’t work, well I guess I will be checking out applications to strip joints or nudist colonies because either way mommy is going to make this work!
thefunnysideofautism 