Autism and The Modern Day Routine

Hello All;

I wanted to talk a little about my son , Jordan:

Jordan was born on January 7, 1998 with some autistic tendencies. He is very high functioning but has trouble with decision making, some social skills and 'getting the point across'. Jordan is also 'mainstreamed' into the public school system with a full-time aide. He has many friends which meet him every morning when I drop him at school - girls and boys alike. All of them tell me about things that he does, and they all seem to adore him. So, enough of the like...onto my point:

A few weeks ago , his special ed teacher called me and wanted to know if he was going on the class field trip to Old Sturbridge Village (http://www.osv.org) . She wanted to know how he would do on a 1.5 hour bus ride. I told her that he loves to ride in the car as long as there is something to do.

I was all for it - my wife, was panicked. She was concerned that a child molester would attack him in the bathroom , so we were going to go. This would mean uprooting all of us and following the bus to Sturbridge MA. I want my son to learn some independence but I still baby him a little. I guess since I struggled so much as a kid, I tend to cushion him all the time. He wound up going with his class, like a typical kid, and he loved it!

Today he went to the 'Y' with his class for activity swimming - again we were concerned that Jordan would wander into danger. Not a chance! He loved being there with his friends and they all had a ball with him.

Oh, my wife just sent me an SMS message the he was the top earner for the school's Read-A-Thon ! Cool - he collected $300.00 (of course, we asked for him but he still did all the reading!)

So, now I am getting all verklempt! Talk amongst yourselves. "The radical reconstruction of the South after the Civil War was neither radical nor a reconstruction. Discuss."

Okay - I'm better now...so, I guess I need to stop treating Jordan like a baby and like a 10 year old boy. I think I finally realise that.

Peace.

Glen