Social Distancing With Autism

I’m getting a tiny chuckle (with love of course) at the people panicking about social distancing.

We have been social distancing for nine years. Not by choice of course. No one told us we had to do it.

It more happened out of necessity. Because of autism.

When someone in your family doesn’t understand the world we live in and the world doesn’t understand him or her in return…well, you stay home more often than not. Because home is safe.

You learn to social isolate real fast.

See, my sweet boy loves being home. It makes sense to him.

There is more too.

My son can’t wait in lines and panics in crowded spaces. He hates loud noises and runs into traffic and doesn’t understand all the things that you and I do for fun.

So. We stay home. Not all the time of course. Yes, we practice going out too. But for a lot of years we couldn’t. We wouldn’t dare to go somewhere during peak times. We visit parks on rainy days. We go to water parks the day after spring break ends. We would never get on a plane or a cruise. Just too risky.

We make our home fun and order in dinner and have our groceries delivered. We watch movies on a big screen in our backyard and sit in a blow up pool on hot days.

We have pretend birthday parties and dance parties on the weekends.

We’ve been rocking this for years!

Social isolating. Finally something we are good at!

Finding Cooper’s Voice is a safe, humorous, caring and honest place where you can celebrate the unique challenges of parenting a special needs child. Because you’re never alone in the struggles you face. And once you find your people, your allies, your village….all the challenges and struggles will seem just a little bit easier. Welcome to our journey. You can also follow us on Facebook, subscribe for exclusive videos, and subscribe to our newsletter.