I've attempted movies before, those mommy and me showings but very loud public meltdowns had me carrying her out to the car, before the movies even began. It's been years since I've tried.
Until last Friday.
Last Friday was one of those days where Tiger seems like a 12 year old instead of 6 year old. Happy, calm, completely self sufficient and a joy to parent. She amazed during her swimming lesson, had no problems with driving around running errands, she didn't need any reminders or social prompting. There was no stimming AT ALL. She had an ASD vacation day, a golden day. The only downside to the day was knowing it had to come to an end. Daddybear wouldn't be home for our bedtime routine. ( did alarm bells just go off in your head cuz I'm hearing them just typing that sentence). Yes I knew our vacation was going to be a short one, and I really just wanted to make it last. So I took her to the movies.
We went to see The Secret Life Of Pets. We sat in the back row, I spoke briefly with the people surrounding us, alerting them that this was our first movie, we might be loud and that we would be out of our seats, up and down throughout the movie. I did not offer an explanation, nor any form of apology, but I did give them a heads up so that they could move away from us prior to the movie starting. The people in front of us chose to move, those beside stayed. I figure tickets are expensive and that alerting them ahead of time was a good way to prevent a problem later, if Tiger had any issues.
Why did I say if? Of course she had issues, the wait for the movie to start was a bit long, the commercials made her mad for some reason but the previews were ok. She was good for the first 30 minutes and then the stimming started, and then the up and down out of her chair, she wanted to watch the show, she didn't want to leave but she was getting overwhelmed and of course tired this was 7 o'clock showing and Tiger is a serious sundowner. Eventually I just pulled her onto my lap into and held her in the cannonball position so she could get pressure sensory input, which would allow her to focus on the movie. We made it to the end of the movie this way.
After the movie we got popcorn and headed home. As soon as we got in the door Tiger announced that she was going to bed and that she wasn't going to brush her teeth or change.
"I just want to go to sleep right now, good night Mama".
She didn't even notice Daddybear wasn't home.
The High Functioning Life, I'll take two tickets please.
HFL Mama
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