Let’s All Be Chickens For a Day

Today, I took my two kids to play at the park. Despite having autism, my five year old Hudson is incredibly social and absolutely loves to play with the kids,most of the time. I think it would be fair to say that he is just as happy playing WITH other kids as much as he is playing alongside other kids.

He usually starts out playing and then gets distracted by the simplicity of the playground.

A screw holding two pieces of playground equipment together, a piece of bark on a tree that looks different from the rest around it, or external pipes leading up to the water fountain.

All insignificant things to most of us, but to Hudson, they are a great fascination. His ability to pick up the little details and notice the tiniest one is something that I admire most about him!

Today was no different. He started off running on the playground by himself, not doing anything in particular other than running. Up the slide, down the slide and around the tree, having no real purpose other than play for fun.

A few seconds later, a little boy around the same age as him started calling him and waving to him from across the park.

“Hudson, do you know that little boy?”

He looked at me just as confused as I was, but the little boy quickly approached him, saying that he remembered Hudson from summer camp!

“Want to play?” 

Tears to any Momma’s eyes when they see their kids making friends.

Here’s the thing… one of the ways that Hudson stims is by making a strange noise, they change every few months.

In the last few months it has been chicken noises. It may seem cute or funny, but feeling like you live with a chicken 24/7 isn’t always so cute. And of course, in his excitement to play with a friend, out came the chicken noises once again!

Would the kid laugh at him?

Run away?

Point?

Ask questions?

“Hey! You make chicken noises!”

“Let’s pretend to be chickens and run up the slide!” And off they went….two happy five year old chickens, without a care in the world.

Sometimes, my own anxiety about the “what if” overtakes me.

Today I learned a valuable lesson. Let’s all stop and be a chicken for the day!

Written by, Lindsay Gardner

Lyndsay is the mom is beautiful five year old Hudson, wife to Wesley, and Mom to sassy four year old Harper. She is also a pediatric lunch practitioner and lover of coffee, wine and llamas!