Susan Senator

Now that I am finished with my class’s midterm exam, I can go back to my book. I thank all of you who wrote me such wonderful things about your lives, and your children! I have learned so much, and I have been trying to incorporate most of what I’ve received.

The chapter I am most interested in now is about you, yourself, and your happiness. How do you (the singular form of “you”) find ways to enjoy yourself, sans enfants? Without children, without partners? What is your most fun thing to do as an adult, when you get the chance? Even if it is “daydreaming while my kid eats sand,” that is what I want to know. There has to be something you do, even for a few moments, that makes you feel good and strong again.

For example, I talk a lot about discovering bellydancing and how that has made such a huge change in how I feel about myself, my life. It is an escape that I can plunge into, just by putting on a sparkly skirt and some Egyptian pop music.

So I want to know what other autism parents are doing, that is, just for themselves. Do you write? Are you a poet? An artist? An actor? A blogger? A runner? A cook? A reader? A polker player? A People Magazine fanatic? A bathroom-scrubber? A phone-gabber? Think, all of you, and tell me how you have figured out what makes you smile (that is NOT about your kids!!!)… Okay, even if the thing you do is about your kids, tell me that!!

What do you do for yourself when you are not doing your autism parent thing?

I can’t wait to find out!