Ouch.
My daughter is autistic - we will remove her from the situation ASAP when she has an episode, but sometimes it may take a few minutes more than people may like.
We never really know when she is about to lose it - she can be perfectly normal and charming, then all of a sudden.....
Would you rather that people that had children with disabilities keep them locked in their rooms for fear they may make someone uncomfortable?
Truth be told, yes. In fact, not just those with disabilities but all of them. However, that's not going to happen. So...
It’s unfortunate for the ones with disabilities, but out in public is out in public and anybody that can’t muster up the basic courtesy of public civilization shouldn’t be out there. I know non-autistic people that I won’t go out in public with because they don’t grasp the basic niceties (nerds, not all of them are house broken). They’re not bad people but I pity anybody sitting in the same section as them in a restaurant.
I know what you mean about episodes. My nephew has mild autism. He is 8 now, and seems to have eidetic memory. He tells his father that he remembers all of his episodes, when he got crazy. He says that he knew what was happening, bot could not control himself.
Assume that you take your family out to a movie ($80) and the kid in front of you with Tourrett's Syndrome keeps spinning around and screaming profanities at you through the entire movie, or even just a few times during the movie, how would you answer that?
Obviously there is no need to cage your child all of the time. You have an incredible burden placed on you. Yes, I get just what a burden it is. Its tremendous, almost unfathomable for most. Yet, it is your burden. Do the best you can. Most people are understanding, if you are reacting to curb what is clearly unacceptable behavior.
God bless you, and give you strength to work with your daughter.
I don’t think children with issues should be locked in their rooms, but...
Before I get blasted let me say there are several special needs children in my family and I encourage them being able to get out and about and participate as much as possible in the real world.
To me, going out to eat with my hubby is a special occasion and when we were younger it was a break from our own children as well. I don’t mind seeing children in adult type restaurants but I do expect them to behave and not disturb others. Whether they are too young to behave, have not been taught how to act, or have issues that keep them from behaving appropriatly that is not the problem of other patrons. I did not take my children anywhere but fast food places until they knew how to act and if they didn’t behave we left ASAP.
I don’t eat at Olive Garden or other chain restaurants so I don’t know if it is a place where children should or should not be allowed to go before they know how to act. If these type of restaurants are places where adults go to unwind then children should not be there before they can handle the situation. If they are family places then children should be able to go while still learning how to act and if others don’t like it then they need to go to a more adult oriented restaurant.