Follow the Rules!!! or Someone Will Get Hurt!!

I woke up this morning and switched on Facebook and discovered a posting from that made me giggle.  Some baseball player, who I don't know, got upset by the way the game had gone and lost his temper in the tunnel.  The way he chose to deal with his frustration was to throw his bat at the wall of the tunnel and it bounced back and hit him in the eye!  click here for the story

How often do we work with our ASD kids on thinking about the consequences before you do something?  1,000,000 times a day at least in my house.  My daughter and I just saw Avenue Q and two of my favorite puppets were the "Bad Idea Bears"!  Basically, they are the voices in the heads of the characters that are trying to get them to do the wrong thing for the "right reasons", like spending more money on a case of beer because in the long run you will save money.  Sounds reasonable, right?  

Social pragmatics is very tricky for most of our kids.  They struggle with all of the cues needed to be involved in social interactions.  One of the things most of our kids are terrific at is following the rules. Once they know the rules, because they are black and white thinkers, those rules become law!  Following the rules makes everyone feel safe and happy!!   

James loves to "play" sports and our house is perfectly set up for inside sports fun!  The one main rule is only use soft equipment.  He plays soccer, volleyball, football, baseball, bowling, etc... and we all try to stay out of his way.  Using the correct equipment for the game makes everyone feel a lot more at easy.  Everyone in my house has at one time of another been on the wrong end of a flying something that wasn't soft!  We all love to see him happy but none of us like to get injured in the process.  His sister is the master at keeping out of his way by being in her room 99.99% of the time she is home.  When she is with him, she knows how to stay out of his way!  They have fun together, which is important, but, more important to me is that they play by the rules!! 

In response to the video that was posted about the grown man baseball player getting injured because he didn't follow the rules of basic physics, James and I made the following training video.  Enjoy!! click here for Injuries are Yucky Baseball Training video  Today, I choose to find my bliss knowing that my little man has more sense than some adults.  I also choose to find my bliss in the fact that everyone needs to learn new things every day.  And finally I choose to find my bliss in the fact that rules are followed, most of the time, in my house and no one has a yucky injury (well for the moment anyway!!)

James has his game face on and wants everyone
to play safely.  Follow the rules, but if you decide
to listen to the Bad Idea Bears instead, hope that
karma, fate, Murphy's law and your mum aren't watching!!