I was at The Nationals AAU Basketball game at cinccinnati, ohio. My granddaughter is in the final two. We were very excited when a lady called my 6yr old grandson a brat. My grandson is very loving and the lady said he just come up and hit her. We were all together and mistaken her for me. He often come up and loves on me in that way. I told her he was autustic and she was very rude and said he hit her. She was an adult and he is 6yrs old. He doesn't speak but he did say ( you Ok) broke my heart. How cold can you be
it sounds like he did hit her though, as you stated this is what he does. so he did hit the lady, and it doesn't sound like she was being cold, but was drawing attention to what he did to her. She may not understand autism at all, so you have to cut her the same slack you give your son. As with autism he can't always explain his actions, and you can't expect everyone to understand him, and his actions.
Think about it--you are out in an exciting public place and a kid you don't know comes up and hits you. He is with a group of people and is not being properly supervised. That is probably why she responded that he was a brat. She probably didn't know he was autistic and she didn't know that that was the way that you allowed him to act. I am sorry you had this experience and that she was rude, but he did hit her. He did seem to realize that he had hurt or upset the woman and she should have been a kind adult and recognized his apology. Maybe try to use this as a learning experience, because as he gets older, it won't be so cute.
It sounds like he did hit her, so I would just apologize to her. Unfortunately many people (who in reality are the rude ones or rather ignorant ones, dont understand autism) I get this a lot with my child, he screams, and sometimes hits himself, and people, stare at us weird, I just say he's got autism, but still some people just come up to us all high and mighty and tell me to be more strict with my kid and what not, I just smile and let their stupid comments slide. Of course the fact that they are adults doesnt seem to get into our heads (all adults have this at one point in our lives). So just let it slide, and give your grandson all our love.
Older people don't always understand autism because it didn't exist in the numbers back then that it does today (contrary to the popular notion that we just have "better diagnosis").
Even if she did know about autism, she may just be a disagreeable person.
God bless you and your grandson!
Let it go. People just react and understand in their own realm what happened, their reality. You said she was elderly and if your grandson did "hit" her she misinterpreted it and got angry. That your grandson even acknowledged her comment shows what a lovely boy he is.
People who have not been there do not understand. Others choose to be rude adults regardless of the circumstance.
I am sure she was having a bad day and that coupled with her ignorance of issues with autism jumped on her critic wagon to give you a ride.
forgive and go on
enjoy your grandson who dispite his condition showed compassion and sorrow by asking if she were ok
He may be a "brat" to her - but sounds like he is a special angel gift from God to you. Enjoy every moment of him and pray for her,she must be very unhappy person who needs a little comforting.
That's terrible. Hope you feel better soon. How badly she must feel. People are ignorant and hurt people not meaning to hurt, but they do
I can't help but wonder what she considered hitting - often times a small child will "knock" on an adults leg to gain attention. When this happens I suggest you just apologize and go on. People like this woman are not worth you time for worry - And explain to the child that they cannot do that to people especially ones they do not know - For me it is important to define "hit" . Adults never cease to amaze me in their reactions to small children. If she wanted to call your attention to an issue she went about it the wrong way.
Some people are flat out stupid. Some people still think institution is the place for children with needs. I was in a store once and a family was there and the girl who was preteen was being very loud. She was also autistic and a lady told the parents we should not have to see children like that. Not in ublic. Keep her home where she belongs. I went up to them because they were upset. I said loud enough for everyone to hear. First that woman was rude and should learn to keep her mouth shut if she could not say something polite. Boy did she give me a nasty look. I also said you should expose her to public situations how else will she grow up and learn to be a nice citizen. Your son may have thought it was you and not realized it was not. The woman if not hurt should have been more gentle and said that's not nice would you like to be hit and let it slide.
Even if your child hit that woman in anger she should not have resorted to name calling. She should have realized he didn't mean any harm but she didn't and just lashed out. I'm sorry you got stuck next to an old sourpuss. When something like that happens the adult should maintain control and bring the problem to the parent of the offending child and not hit back or shout names like a child themselves.
I would worry more about helping your grandson. At this point you may never see that person again but what you can do is think about the future and helping him to know how to handle these type of situations. I have a 12 year old autistic child and there are many people out there who do not understand what it is or it looks like. There is also fear of it. Focus on your grandchild and helping him to recover from it.
