Sadly, no photos exist of Pookie in his Halloween costume, but this one of Giggles wearing his clown wig. Pookie was a clown for Halloween. I made his costume. It took me about 4 hours. He wore it for 30 minutes. But, I am happy with that.
Halloween is hard for Pookie. It just makes no sense.
Ordinary Rules…….. Halloween Rules
Put your clothes on correctly……..Its Ok to wear funny clothes
Stay on the sidewalk……..Its OK to walk up to houses and across lawns
Only 1 piece of candy……..Eat as much as you want
Stay close to Mom and Dad……..Go ask that lady for some candy
See? Its a ridiculous holiday. It makes no sense. You spend your whole life trying to learn the rules and then they change them on you. And for no good reason. Just to “have fun?” Pookie has fun every day, he does not need an orange holiday to tell him to have fun.
So, Halloween has been difficult for us. He behaves just fine, don’t get me wrong. He just chooses not to participate. He says “whatever.” But this year he did better than last. He put his costume on (to make me happy, but that is a good life skill too). He walked with our group from house to house, and held his bucket out. He, of course, wanted to eat each piece as soon as it hit the bucket. That is also a confusing thing. If they are going to give you candy, why would you just leave it in your bucket? Why not eat it on the way to the next house? He did 2 loops through the neighborhood, keeping his candy in his bucket (until someone gave him Cheetos, then he HAD to eat them right away). Then we went home and he sat on the porch looking/eating his way through his bucket. We played on the lawn while Geetle passed out our candy at our hosue. He had a great night. But, no pictures. We were too busy keeping him on task and watching out for the pitfalls that never came.
Did you ever think about that? How holidays and certain traditions make no sense to a child with Autism? Its eye-opening. Ever since we learned to take a step back and think like Pookie, things are much clearer to us. We understand why he does not “like” Halloween. He does not get the point. He does not want to pretend to be a clown or a super hero. He is happy the way he is and gets nothing out of the pretending. He does not get symbolism and tradition. But that does not mean that he does not enjoy the holidays. He just experiences them on a simpler level.
Related posts:
- Halloween Costume Idea- by Geetle Would you like to be a duck for Halloween? All...
- Baby’s First Halloween One week old. The whole family. Pookie was a...
- Pookie is an Eastsider Do you like to do puzzles? Do you like to...
- Pookie and Geetle’s 5th Birthday Party Our friend party did not really have a theme, except...
- The “Pookie Outsider Shoutouts” for this week I have been embroiled in an internet dispute recently. Its...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I had never thought about it before, but I am sure that many holidays are confusing to children with autism. It seems like rules just sort of go out the window on holidays!
Oh, and Giggles REALLY looks like her big sister!
Hey BAGM,
I forgot to mention that during our walk last night, Pookie started talking about “No trick or treating tonight.” So now that he understands that the rules of trick or treating are okay, now he has to learn that it only happens once per year.