Its a Chain Link Paradise!

Yes, I began this blog in 2006, wrote one post, and left it until now.  Why?  I don't know.  Too painful, too busy, too little inspiration?

So now I'm back and felt like I needed an update on the blog.  When looking at options for the layout and background, I came across the picture of chain link and knew that would be perfect.  Why?  Well if you have a wanderer like my son you would know exactly. I have a child with severe autism who cannot be left alone for more than a minute.  He will either bolt out of the house, get into things that can harm him, or break something as well.  He's nine now and I still cannot take a shower when he is home.

We moved to our current home two years ago now and for the first summer I was stuck inside the house with two kids while my husband was off to work.  I couldn't go outside with a fast 7 year old and a toddler.  It just didn't work.  They both would run in opposite directions and I couldn't keep them together.  Unfortunately with my son's autism, he doesn't engage in any extended length of play.  Toys interest him for less than 2 minutes because he doesn't know how to play with them.  He prefers to do what he knows how to do and that is holding his favorite toys and wandering around.  He doesn't stop walking ever and sitting seems to be very uncomfortable for him.   We've yet to unlock the secrets as to how to settle him down.  I have envied those parents with the luxury of having an autistic child who plays video games or is on the computer all day.

So after a summer of watching our neighbors through our windows enjoying the outside while I endlessly chased my son around the house trying to keep him out of stuff, I told my husband that we either get the fence or I will lose my sanity.  So all last winter we saved up and as soon as the ground was thawed enough we installed a black chain link fence around our back yard.  It turned out awesome!

We bought a huge pirate ship swing set and built a sandbox.  My husband and I put out our patio set that we barely used since we never could sit down outside with our son.  We locked the gates so he couldn't get out and removed anything that would cause him harm.  It turned out beautiful.  The dangers of the world were fenced out and we were safe within.  We had finally created a space for our family with our needs in mind and we could enjoy the outside without losing sight of our precious boy.

Unlike other families, we cannot just go to the beach or the playground.  We have a child that has no awareness of danger and we have to protect him.  And many times he doesn't enjoy going to public places because its stressful for him especially if there's a lot of people and kids.  When you take a child to a playground who doesn't have the strength, social skills, motor skills, or planning to play on the equipment what do they do?  They wander.  For years we tried to go to public parks only to end up running behind our son while he hurried off to nowhere.  This works for us.  We no longer have to chase him and he has the freedom of wandering within the safety of our chain link paradise.