Independence Day

As a parent with children with Autism, you forget there are things that you just avoid that typical people take for granted. For example:Places with large crowds and over the top noise. In Mesa, there is a sort of festival that they put on every year. It is a wonderful event. They have booths set up every where, usually having to do with American History, and so forth. At the end they do fire works. We had a few people ask if we were going. Well, we did not think twice before we said no, there will be too many people. We always get weird looks when we say that. Our children cannot handle this type of situation. But we really would like our kids to be able to celebrate these wonderful holidays. So needless to say, we took them to the festival. They lasted all about 2 minutes and were done. We had friends and family ask if we were staying for the fireworks and we said no. Again, you get the funny looks. Our kids cannot do fireworks. They get overstimulated,mix that with a large group of people walking all over the place in large packs...equals no fun. For the 4th of July we went to a friend's house to celebrate. They let off their own fireworks. I figured this would be okay because we were with a small group of friends and I could take them inside if needed. There isn't a fight for a seat and you don't have to worry about other people. Well, the loud noise overstimulated my son. He tried so hard to have fun but it was over-doing it for him. My daughter ended up going inside for most of it. She did not like the noise or the smoke. It makes me sad that these things cannot be enjoyed by my children. I think my son liked it for the most part but it affected him. All in all we had a wonderful celebration for the 4th with our friends!