A fabulous haggy afternoon

What a fantastic afternoon we had at the Knox Gymnastics Club! It was just such a feel good afternoon for young and old, with some new members joining us originals, always a good thing to welcome new people to the gang.

I met Richard, father of Tilly who was so full of enthusiasm it was great. I had met his partner Gwen a few times over the last couple of years but hadn’t really had much of a chance to catch up. Gwen had work so came along later but Richard bravely faced the sea of hags that he had never met before! At the end of the day he seemed so pleased to meet us all and even offered his services for future school holiday activities, suggesting a circus school (fantastic) and a pottery workshop (bathtime bigtime but fun!) It inspired me even more to speak to somebody as enthusiastic about our kids as I am.

Kirsty came along for the first kids activity time with her partner and sons Thomas and Oliver. We hadn’t seen her since she was about 8 months pregnant with Oliver which by the look of him was a while ago now. Karen came with her boys Liam and Aiden, also the first time she had been to a hags activity. Lyndy came along with her boys Shaun and Ryan which was lovely as we don’t get a chance to catch up as often as we’d like.

And of course the stable of the sisterhood of the hag (or should that be nag) Amanda, Bec, Clare, Linda, Nicky and Nicki who are always there making up the numbers. It doesn’t matter how often I see the girls, I still always look forward to our time together.

Surprisingly there weren’t any tantrums and the kids all behaved really well. Some went off and did their own thing which was to be expected but the coordinators Andrew and Yeayea (still can’t get past the visual of Shane Warne on that hair ad!) were great and very tolerant of our little buggers and all their idiosyncrasies. The great thing about getting together as a group was that it wasn’t just my child that held up the line with one issue or another or tried to jump on the trampoline when others were clearly having their turn. Kids just wandered in and out of the places that they probably shouldn’t have been and nobody (pardon my french here) really gave a shit because we all got it.

Afterwards we all had party food in the party room which was just long enough for the kids to hang out and get their participation certificates. There was a mysterious smell in the air that smelled suspiciously like a dirty nappy that made a number of us glad that we didn’t have kids in nappies any more but that was ok, it was contained to another room!

And you know the other thing that was great about the afternoon?  It really showed me how fantastic our kid’s siblings are. From Oliver asking Marcus what sort of jump he’d like him to do into the spongy squares pit to Guy offering his hula hoop to Will and Lachlan when musical hoops was being played. Or when Bridie was too scared to jump into the pit and Bill was there saying that it was ok, not scary at all. Those things give me a lump in my throat because it’s just so lovely to see in this world of others thinking what weirdos our kids are, through stares and even blatant comments, that like us, our kids get it too.

About Sarah

Mother of an autistic child wanting to write about my personal experiences
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