Fries please!

Our family decided to go out for dinner tonight and so the mission to find a place that would satisfy everyone began. My first thought that came to mind was that they needed to have fries. If they didn't have fries the place was a no go.

I know you must be wondering, why does she want fries so badly? Well it wasn't for me, it was for my son. The only thing he will eat when we go out is fries. 

We picked a place that seemed good, I know we had been there before but it had been quite some time since eating there. We sat down at our table and when the waiter came we ordered. And when we said "just a side of fries for our son" We got the look. The look that said, how can you let your child eat just fries for dinner? But this time we didn't just get the look the waiter then went on to say to us "well at least he will eat something." 

If he only knew, and he almost did. I looked at him and I almost blurted it out. I almost said to him well my son is autistic. But I didn't. I just smiled at him and kept my thoughts to myself. He passed judgement on us and on Logan so quickly. If he only knew the struggles he has daily with his diet. If he only knew how difficult it is for Logan to accept a new food. 

I don't feel like I need to explain my son everywhere we go. I feel the most pressure when he gets invited to parties and the parents will say to me afterwards that he didn't eat anything, that he didn't have any cake. But I get the judgement looks all the time. The looks when we pick something out at the grocery store and the packaging isn't just right for him. Well why can't he just have the other one or the other flavor? And you know I honestly can't answer that question, because I don't know myself.

These things make sense to him, but no one else. He thinks in different ways then we do. His thought process is different then ours. Among a world of people accepting different people, I feel sometimes that, that is not the case for my son. To be judged so quickly by a stranger that doesn't know our story at all does hurt. To think that I am that horrible mother that lets my child eat junk all the time instead of eating something healthier pains me to no end.

I have fought for my son and advocated for him. We just returned to see a new dietitian, whom I think will be great to work with Logan to hopefully help him to introduce some new foods into his diet, which could take us a very long time but we will stick with it.

I think that still today we need to learn not to pass judgement so quickly. I wrote a post a while back about a resident that taught me that lesson and that memory still sticks with me today. 

Accept the difference in people, don't judge it.