Monday, February 15, 2010

Flashback

Tonight must have been "Employee-Talk-On-The-Phone-Instead-Of-Wait-On-Customer" night at the warehouse club.

The girls and I went inside to pick up the gazillion and one photos I sent from home to be printed at the one-hour photo center there.

The photo-center employee was chatting on the phone, and I could hear enough of the conversation to know that it was a personal conversation. She chatted for a few minutes before she told the person on the other end of the call that she had to wait on me.

I felt my anxiety rising. DOESN'T SHE REALIZE I AM STANDING HERE WITH A 10 YEAR OLD W/ AUTISM WHO COULD "BLOW" AT ANY MINUTE??? WAITING IS CHALLENGING FOR HER! HANG UP THE PHONE AND GIVE ME MY PHOTOS, NOW!

That's what I felt on the inside. I tried to remain cool, calm and collected on the outside.

Took her a few minutes to find all of my photos (I hadn't printed photos in approximately a year -- I had a *bunch*.)

I wanted to pay using my warehouse club rebate check -- and she didn't have enough cash in her register to do that. It's not that I had a big check. The photo-center customers apparently use plastic, which means the photo-center cash register has very little change inside.

My daughters, yes, including the one on the autism spectrum, were fine, hanging with me, as the photo-center employee sent sent me to customer service.

Customer service sent me to a station beside the checkout lines. There was no line, but again, there was an employee on the phone, ignoring me.

I felt my anxiety rising. DOESN'T SHE REALIZE I AM STANDING HERE WITH A 10 YEAR OLD W/ AUTISM WHO COULD "BLOW" AT ANY MINUTE??? WAITING IS CHALLENGING FOR HER! HANG UP THE PHONE AND CASH MY CHECK, NOW!!!!!!

FINALLY, she asked how she could help me. I tried to remain calm on the outside -- but inside, I was anxious.

She cashed my little rebate check. The girls and I headed to the car. No problem.

I wondered -- WHAT, exactly, was I worried about?

I had a flashback in the warehouse club to a time when my daughter had difficulty understanding the wait.

Whew. Glad it was just a flashback!

Thanks, RDI(r) and Communicating Partners -- to our RDI(r) Program Certified Consultant, to Dr Gutstein, to Dr James D MacDonald, for teaching me and helping me use myself differently, so that my daughter can grow and learn. (Now I must learn to ignore the flashbacks when I have them.)

2 comments:

Anne said...

How cool is that? It's really exciting when they do better than we think they will.

Dani G said...

Great story. It's so important to recognize not only our kids' progress, but our own as well. Plus, I think my bird really picks up on my own emotions. If I'm getting crazy, she is more likely to "blow". When I remain calm, I think it's a whole lot easier for her to do the same.

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