Skip to main content

Why I Don't Mind Having One Less Band-Aid

Last Friday afternoon shortly before Dominic was due to come home on the bus, I popped into my local Kroger to pick up a handful of items for the weekend.  As I was putting the last of my things onto the conveyor belt, I overheard the gentleman who was bagging my groceries say to the clerk next to him, "can you get me a Band-Aid?" She answered back, "okay, I'll get you one in a minute." He was beginning to get upset about the fact he needed one and didn't have one. Since I was running late, I guess I could have just finished bagging my own groceries and gotten out of there, but that's not my "style." I always have at least one Band-Aid on hand at all times, so I pulled one out of my purse and said, "do you want this one?" He seemed very relieved and said, "yes, could you put it on my finger?"  I LOVE the fact that my local Kroger has hired a handful of special needs individuals to work at the store. As I finished putting the Band-Aid on his finger, he told the clerk, "we should buy her a candy bar!" I told him, "no, that's okay." The clerk was telling me that he has to ride a bus to get to work, by himself.  As I walked to the car and loaded in my groceries, I had a "flash forward" moment to about eight years from now, when Dominic will be 18 - an ADULT.  It's so hard to predict the future for him. There was a time when I didn't think Dominic would ever be potty trained. Yesterday, I was ready to have a party, because he said, "I have to go potty!" I have been having to "prompt" him to go every two hours, so him, telling me he had to go was a HUGE step for him.  I feel like every day we take a few more "steps" towards him being more independent. I think about his future more and more as he gets older.


Will he go to college? get his driver's license? have a job? live on his own? One thing I have learned as I get older, you can't assume anything in life! I'm sure my bagging "buddy" has a mom out there. I know that I will never probably meet her, but I hope she knows what a sweet and an awesome son she has and how proud she should be of him. Who knows, maybe one day she'll be shopping at the Kroger and Dominic may be bagging her groceries and he'll need a Band-Aid.
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnnaFebruary 4, 2015 at 5:05 PM

    I wonder why he needed a band-aid. His mom is probably so proud of him right now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joyful Journey MomFebruary 6, 2015 at 2:25 PM

    What a sweet encounter! And as a mom, I totally get it :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cathy B.February 7, 2015 at 8:24 AM

    Thanks for the comments!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Book Every Autism Mom Should Read

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mainstreaming and Inclusion

The hubby and I were discussing the other day how special education students were treated back when he and I were in school.  He remarked to me that in his time, they were "hidden away" from the rest of the students.  When I was in elementary school, I can remember seeing the kids in those classrooms pass by us in the hallway.  I don't ever recall seeing them in the lunchroom or playground.  I'm so glad that times have changed.  Even though Dominic is in a "self-contained" special education classroom, he does get to go to the art, gym and music classrooms.  He also gets to eat lunch in the school cafeteria.  He loves hot lunch on Thursday - pizza!! Given Dominic's abilities, he is able to be "mainstreamed" into the general education classroom for small amounts of time.  Every moment he is able to do that gives me so much hope for his future.  I absolutely love what Dominic's current teacher is doing.  He has started a peer-to-peer progra...
2 comments
Read more

It's a "Group" Effort

Since going to the local barbershop is still not allowed where we live, it fell upon us to figure out the best way to shave Dominic's beard and mustache. Typically, Dominic goes to our local barbershop to get his haircut and his barber (Vince) also takes about 30 seconds to shave the beard and mustache. This August, it will be five years that Dominic has been going to Vince. That in itself is a huge milestone as anyone with a child/adult with sensory sensitivities knows. Anyways, earlier in the week my hubby, Lauren and I had all noticed that Dominic's facial hair definitely needed some assistance. I mentioned to Lauren that I needed to find a "social story" about getting a shave. Before I had a chance to find one, she took it upon herself to find one and print it out, it had both an electric shaver and shaving cream/razor stories! That meant so much to me, because she didn't have to do that, she wanted to!    I showed the social story to Dominic and sai...
2 comments
Read more