Sweet encounter this morning.

lite-bright · July 2012

I just got back from taking DD1 and DD2 to the park. While we were there, a little boy (about DD1's age) and his dad went past, out on a walk together. DD1 took off after them and as I was catching up, was introducing herself and trading hugs with the little boy.

As I walked up, the dad was explaining to her that his son didn't talk very much, and when DD1 asked why, he said that his son "thinks differently." By this time I had a pretty good hunch that we were both on the same team, so to speak; I smiled at him and said that DD1 thinks differently, too, because she has autism. Dad confirmed his son did, too.

The boy was very taken with DD1 and interested in hugging her, touching her face, etc. He even said her name a few times. She wanted him to play, and I thought for a minute they were going to give it a go, but the little boy ended up wanting to go home.

Dad said, as they were leaving, that the encounter was "a first" for his son and thanked me, and said he hoped we ran into each other again. It was just so sweet to see the two of them together, to see the dad handling both his son and inquiries from another kid so well, and to have it be a positive social encounter for both kids. For all of us, really. You just never know who you're going to run into out there.

ali0608 · July 2012

Yes

I wish The Bump had a "like" button.

MaxandRuby · July 2012

ali0608:

I wish The Bump had a "like" button.

This!

BonnyDoon · July 2012

I love it!! Thanks for sharing.

bumpuser511563 · July 2012

I liked hearing this story! I hope you guys do run into each other!

BirdieToldMe · July 2012

My DS is best friends with another IEP kid in his class. His mom loves my son because her son doesn't usually click with others and DS is obsessed with him.

I love it when stuff like this happens. *sniff* Thanks for sharing your story!

smiling76 · July 2012

That's an awesome story!!! I second the "like" button LOL

I had an experience a couple months ago at the park when talking to another mom I had just met about the number of children we both had---and kind of indicated that one of mine was special needs and that I think I'm done-that my hands are full--and she said "my oldest is special needs"...... and we went on to chat about our SN kids and it really humbled me because I only have two --and she was working on #4 and was truly happy. Granted, she had about 4 yrs between her oldest and the next and I don't--but still..... it's kind of neat when you do meet people who truly do have something this big in common with you--and when it's the kids it's really awesome.

Same thing happened at a recent b-day party we took DS1 too--talking to another parent found out that DS1's friend was in tons of therapy (from nutritional to Occupational to physical and everything in between) for his first 2.5-3 yrs and we never knew. So they knew very much what we deal with and could even give some advice. Small world sometimes.