Before I give you my story with my son, I want to thank and can’t really express truly in words how grateful I am for the moms who continue to be my friend and there for me through everything happening with my son. I’ve had a handful of moms continue to invite us to play dates and parties even tho my son has had challenges attending (explained below). They continued to make me feel welcome. It was extremely lonely and they helped me through a very dark time.

Please if you know a mom with a special needs child, please I beg you invite them over too. Reach out to them and be a friend. It will mean the world to them if you invite them over.

My son has always been a high needs child. I love him with all my heart, but he has had challenges with everything since a baby (sleeping, eating, etc)

When he was a toddler, his behavior was more accepted because lets face it, toddlers have lots of meltdowns or could be reasons for why they are acting the way they are acting.

As my son turned 2.5/3 though... we started to really worry. Our son wasn’t talking much (20 words max and not completely clear and he is bilingual but that’s very delayed), all out screaming and trying to escape when in enclosed social situations (play dates, classes), in any social situation and big group gatherings, very overwhelmed.

We would try to go over for play dates and it was impossible. He would high pitch scream and try to run away.

I tried my hardest to go to classes and play dates to expose him.

He loves being outside tho, and so we would meet up outside when we could. As summer came around, a handful of moms still would invite us over and reach out to me to ask how I’m doing and all.

This one mom in particular invited us to birthday parties and all. She also had an older son with high anxiety so she understood more.

My son was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder recently and haven’t ruled out autism (tho he doesn’t fit the criteria and many professionals feel he doesn’t have it...)

. He is highly sensitive to noise and sight. He gets completely overwhelmed in social situations because of sensory overload. I explained to the moms that if he gets too overwhelmed then we may have to leave because then he could have outbursts. He gets to close to other and doesn’t know social boundaries (because he has poor self and body awareness which goes along with sensory processing disorder). We have to use specific strategies to calm him down and I have to monitor him. All the moms were very understanding and keep inviting us over. I’ve had other moms just gawk or say “you have your hands full” and not want to play with us anymore.

I’m so thankful for those moms that were considerate of what we could be going through.

When we are at home, my son is a whole diff child. He is 4 now. He does arts and crafts, he loves playing with all sorts of toys. He doesn’t stop talking now (large vocabulary). He talks about his friends Louis and Carys even tho it’s huge challenges for him to try and play with them. He truly wants to be able to play with other kids.

Thank you to those moms who let him keep coming over even tho they witnessed bad meltdowns and he basically wasn’t able to play. You all are saints, truly.

Sorry I had to vent because I was thinking about all this today how much they’ve been there for me.

He has a littler sister and getting better with playing with her, still get too close a lot and we have to redirect him a lot how to play with her and all. Big reactions for a whole year after she was born, but now it’s better. Both enjoy playing together and love each other