Off to a Hag party

This afternoon we’ve booked the Ferntree Gully Gym for a hags party. I can’t wait, it should be good fun. We’ve got 20 kids and who knows how many adults coming. It’s a great gym, they have kinder gym there and my kids have been to parties there in the past. It’s a facilitated program so the kids will all have 2 staff co-ordinating them for about an hour(poor buggers don’t know what they’re in for!) then we have an hour for a party which we’re all taking a plate. It’s been a while since we all got together with the kids and husbands, us mums get together a lot. We had a HAGS and SHAGS dinner last year but it’s often difficult to get babysitters for our kids, often in families like ours the parents go out seperately or are in fact single parents.

We always get together at Christmastime and occasionally meet at Macdonalds for breakfast in the school holidays before the crowds get there. We had a fundraiser pamper day earlier in the year (Hag Day Afternoon) and we decided that the money that we raised would go towards school holiday programs for the kids.

There are programs that do have school holiday activities but we wanted it to be all inclusive with siblings and with parents too. I don’t know about other mums but I hate the thought of Beth trying something new and missing seeing the enjoyment that she gets out of it. I also feel guilty if I’m dropping her off for an activity and my other kids don’t get to go. Also when Beth went she didn’t know any of the other special needs people that went and said when it came up again that she didn’t want to go. I thought about it and realised that just because she’s autistic doesn’t mean that she doesn’t realise that she’s with a group of strangers, all with their own issues. At least with the hags group she can get to know the kids at her own speed and if she doesn’t want to play with them then so be it. Amanda and I always laugh that it took over a year for Beth and Lachlan (their oldest son) to even acknowledge each other. We’re lucky in the sense that all our kids are similar ages so that Bill and Guy are good mates and Bridie and Will walk around holding hands half the time. We’d go over to their house or they to ours and Beth or Lachlan would just walk in and plonk themselves down as if they owned the place, oblivious to each other. Now finally they will ask where each other is! That’s usually about the extent of it but that’s ok with me, they’re cool about each other, that’s all we can really ask for isn’t it? So off to the gym in an hour, will let you know how it goes.

About Sarah

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