One thing I love (and sometimes hate) about being the mother of Aspie kids is that EVERY MOMENT IS EDUCATIONAL. Yes, every moment is an opportunity for me or my husband to shed light on appropriate behavior or to help our Aspie kids to see the brighter side of things...etc....ad infinitum...
But what I am referring to is the constant questioning that often makes me feel unintelligent....because I just don't know the answer.
Like the morning when my middle Aspie son DID NOT greet me with "good morning," rather..."Mom, is a Platypus a mammal or a marsupial or a foul?"
Well now THAT was a mouthful for 5:30AM.....
So what did this Aspie Mom do? Marched herself over to the computer to check it out. My husband thought I was crazy for wasting our precious morning time looking it up....but I knew that our son would spend the remainder of the day concentrating on this one question. I thought I knew the answer...and I confirmed it in a short amount of time...but did learn quite a bit about this strange and wonderfully ancient animal.
For instance: Did you know that the platypus is the only remaining surviving specimen of an ancient genus called Ornithorhynchidae? I bet not...I didn't either. As I also did not know that the male platypus has a spur that is venomous. Interesting.
I NEVER would have learned any of this if I didn't have Aspie kids!
So a platypus is an animal that shows characteristics of many different species, is greatly misunderstood and was thought to be a fraud when first observed by European naturalists. Sounds like an Aspie kid....shows many characteristics of very different behavior, greatly misunderstood and many feel that their behavior is a fraud, a put on, a cover for being lazy and/or spoiled. Hmmmmm....
The platypus is now a beloved national symbol and is protected from hunting....
I sure wish our Aspie children fell under that same protection.
Maybe some day our society will recognize that the
UNIQUE is not necessarily UNACCEPTABLE...
that the DIFFERENT is not necessarily DEFECTIVE.....
and that the INDIVIDUAL should not be treated as INADEQUATE.
I wonder what wonderful insight tomorrow's question will bring?
By the way, a platypus is a mammal.
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