A few months ago, I was in my local library and a lady (and I think her son) came in. They were having a very loud and intense discussion the entire time that they were in the library. I was kind of curious as to whether the librarian was going to tell them to keep their voices down. No employees of the library said anything to them and this lady and her son kept talking loudly until they left. I was raised to keep your voices low and/or whisper in the library. I have worked really hard with Dominic to get him to understand that in different places (like a library) you use a different tone or level of your voice. I have a "buddy" that works at the library and when we bump into each other, I always make sure that she and I conduct our conversations quietly. I looked at my library's website and found a "code of conduct" or as I like to call it, library "etiquette" rules. There are actually 20 rules listed. Rule number ten said you can't sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time. Rule number eleven had to do with personal hygiene (you can't bathe, shave or wash and dry clothes in the restroom). Rule number four had to do with disturbing others. It said in particular you can't sing or talk loudly. I would definitely qualify the lady and her son as disturbing others. What I found interesting was that most people in the library that day were just ignoring how loud and rude they were. My own personal opinion is that when you act that way, you are not being respectful to others. How about you? Does it bug you when people are loud and don't follow library "etiquette" rules??
When Dominic was diagnosed with Autism at 2 1/2, I went to our local library and took out every book I could find about Autism. Sometimes I would bring back 20 books. This was 2006, so a lot of the information was very "dated." I guess I was looking for a book that would tell me what I should do next, like a "manual." Autism doesn't quite work that way! The saying is, " if you know one person with Autism, you know one person with Autism." Every mom to an individual with Autism follows their own "path." I think as moms, we judge ourselves much harder than anyone else does. I was 41 when I had Dominic. Did he get the diagnosis of Autism because I was an older mom? because I drank a lot of pop? I could sit and think about that every minute of every day. I am pretty integrated into the Autism community around Lansing and have told more than one person that it took me about two weeks to come to terms with Dominic's diagnosis. It is so incredib...
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