Imagine having a child on the spectrum. Now imagine a child on the spectrum who loves talking to everyone. This child loves to tell jokes and make people laugh.
Now can you imagine being this child’s parent and asking him/her to stop telling jokes for the umpteenth time? In less than an hour only to have all these strangers say “it’s ok he/she is not bothering me”.
Whatever happened to the days when a mother said please stop telling jokes to strangers and that stranger says “you should listen to your mother”? It must be in a dream world. They say it takes a village to raise a child but the village is broken.
These villagers are so worried about hurting children’s feelings they just sit there and listen to the child. The parent asks the child to stop but the stranger says “it’s ok I don’t mind”. Even if the parent says that is enough let this family go about their day. The response to me as the child’s mother is “oh he/she is not bothering me”.
I get that my child is not bothering you but as the parent of said child trying to set boundaries tell that child to listen to their parent. Normalize saying “listen to your parent” instead of “oh it’s ok I don’t mind”
I say this because as a parent to a child on the spectrum, it is extremely difficult to teach boundaries when everyone is saying “he is not bothering me” or “I don’t mind”.
When this child hears these words they automatically make it so he/she refuses to listen to the parent completely. So please say listen to your parents instead of saying “it’s ok, I don’t mind” or even “it’s not bothering me at all”
This has been happening way too often. Believe me when I say that boundaries are an issue. This child will not stop after one joke it is like the energizer bunny that just keeps going.
Everything and Anything 