An Aha Moment, on Ben Being Literal

Growing up not knowing I was an Aspie I took things literally and people took me for being naive, I suppose I was that as well. It took many years being the brunt of jokes to "get" the jokes and use my newly learned "witticism" and multi-meanings of words to my full advantage.However, How I soon forget that my son Ben has yet to gain the vast knowledge about puns and living as I have.

This being established so begins my little blog about Ben. We were laying things out for the field trip tomorrow. This was the 2nd field trip Ben had been on this year. The first was to the Nature Center, mostly outside examining railroad tracks and such. I know tomorrow is going to be a rather warm day and said it was okay for the boys to wear their sandals. Ben insisted repeatedly he must wear tennis shoes. Many times I just let the words roll off and shrug and brush them aside but he was persistent this time. He wouldn't back down and was almost yelling at me I have to wear my TENNIS shoes because it's a FIELD trip mom. I said, Ben you are going to see a play tomorrow. HE stopped and said ..." a play?". I said "Yes Ben and explained where it was." That seemed to appease him but he still had to get in "Well, I thought we were going on a field trip..." and I said, "You are, to see a play". "Oh, he said one of many times pretending to understand"...and That was the end of that.As I was tucking them in bed the topic of the play came up. I said you are going to see James and the Giant PEach. Ben laughed and said "Who ever heard of such, a giant peach!" I said well the people who wrote the play Ben. He looked at me perplexed. I said my goodnights and went about my tasks before my bedtime. I was making sure clothes and snacks were set out and busiest myself in laundry.

Suddenly, as I am unloading the dryer it hit me like a ton of bricks. I BURST out laughing and said outloud..." A FIELD trip!!!" It had suddenly taken all this time to sink in that he thought he was literally going to a "field" outside and needed his tennis shoes to go there. I hadn't stopped to explain to him what a field trip really meant but recall in ear shot Jake his older brother explaining it to him in the bedtime shuffle. How could I have been so naive.Totally didn't occur to me that my son thought it was an outside ordeal, just as the one a few weeks ago had been when they did go across an actual field. Once I realized what the ruckus had been about it just tickled me...and I was laughing at myself. Being a very visual thinker.. a second wave of laughter erupted from within as I envisioned a GIANT peach... a real one. No wonder Ben had looked at me perplexed. He thinks he is going to a place tomorrow to see a boy named JAmes and this Giant peach he's grown... no wonder he thought it to be absurd... haha.I am still laughing as I am writing this, imagining how BIG he envisioned this overgrown produce to be.

Tomorrow I will have to prepare him for what's really going to transpire so he will not be laughed at as I was when I was his age and thought things of the similar nature. Oh well,at least this time when I have to relive my youth I can do it with fresh eyes and am empathetic heart for I know first hand what it has been like to be the one who didn't "get" things...and still don't sometimes. I remember so many times as a child, and even sometimes now shaking my head yes that I understood something I totally didn't get. I was too embarrassed to say otherwise. Occasionally I'd get the nerve to ask them to repeat the question, and be ostracized for doing such a thing...and still not "getting" it because I was concentrating on being laughed at. Just takes things longer to sink in, but once they are in there... they are pretty much embedded forever. I tell ya kids certainly keep our brains working... even after they are sound asleep.