Tad Is Invited To A Party

On Saturday, Tad was invited to a birthday party for one of the boys in his Sunday School class.  The Webmaster and I decided that he could go, but knew that one of us would have to stay with him.  I was hesitant about letting him go at all, considering that he doesn’t have a stellar track record in social situations and wouldn’t be any the wiser if he didn’t go.  But two things convinced me otherwise.

1) The mom of the birthday boy told me that he had asked for Tad by name (why, I have no idea), and
2) Just because Tad has learning disabilities and social delays shouldn’t mean that we keep him from doing anything fun or different just because it might be more work for us.  How on earth can he rise to meet our expectations if we’re constantly setting the bar low, just because we don’t want to see him screw up?

So, I told the mom that I would stay with Tad (which meant, of course, that Rerun would have to come along too, but she was fine with that because he was too young to make a mess or want a goodie bag) for the party, and she said that she appreciated that.  She’s seen Tad in action at church.  Believe me, I have no desire to inflict Tad’s wildness on people if I don’t have to.

And Tad… did surprisingly well.  I was really quite proud of him.

It was the ideal boys’ birthday party – all cars, running around outside (it held off raining long enough to let the six boys at the party race around outside) and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into car shapes.  I knew all of the boys except one at the party, which meant that the boys themselves were mostly well acquainted with Tad and his modus operandi.  Fortunately, there were lots of cars to play with and activities to do and games to play, which – with a little pointed direction – Tad was able to participate in.

It was a real blessing to me to see Tad behaving relatively well in a unfamiliar environment where he had to interact with other boys around his own age.  It was a glimpse into what he has the potential to be like, if we can just figure him out.  It was almost like, for a couple of short hours, he was close to “normal.”  Maybe someday, he will have friends of his own who he wants to play with.  Maybe someday, I’ll be able to leave him at a birthday party and not stay to watch him.  Maybe someday, he will have the self-control that he so desperately needs.

Until someday comes, we’re just taking life with Tad one day at a time.  And this day… was a good day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 3:48 am and is filed under Children, From the Church Front.
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