And since then.....

Oh, well so much for that promise. I'm trying....yet again......for the value of relaying my experience of homeschooling my son with special needs and it's effect on our family.
So we went to Remlinger Farms today, sort of a combination farm/amusement park out in Carnation. Mostly the day went well. The boys enjoyed the pony ride, the train ride, the car ride, the canoe ride, and the roller coaster. They got to buy the bags of semiprecious stones they had coveted from a previous trip.
Then....we came to the last ride of the day. This one consisted of a winding track, around which people rode on adult-sized tricycles. The staff expressed concern about being able to let everyone ride before they had to close, so I let the boys ride around the track by themselves, so that other kids could go.

At some point, I thought I heard yelling, but the music was blaring so loudly I couldn't be sure. Then a mom and her daughter ride up. The mother informs me that my son was using bad language and bad manners. I ask her exactly what kind of language he used. She said that he was yelling. Oh okay. When someone says bad language to me, I automatically think it's profanity. They walk off. So Batman arrives, gets off the bike and starts yelling. I grab him and start talking to him to get him to calm down. Mom and daughter show up again. Daughter says to Batman, "You are so busted." I try to gesture her away and she takes it to mean that I'm siding with my son. She starts yelling/screaming at him about how she didn't do anything and he starts yelling back at her. The mom informs me that she feels sorry for me and drags off her daughter, who is still yelling.
I turn back to Batman and ask him what happened. Apparently the girl blocked him with her bike......and I can guess the rest. It was probably an accident and Batman freaked out. I still have to wait for Robin. Sam asks to go over to the hay maze and I let him. After a few more minutes, Tom arrives.

I walk out of the ride with Robin and he runs over to the play bus, where the mom and daughter are standing. I walk over to the daughter (she is closer) and she immediately starts protesting that she didn't do anything. I say, "Hon, I know that you didn't do anything. (Mom comes over and stands by her daughter.) When I waved at you, I was trying to get you away from the situation and away from his.....meltdown. I know it must have been really scary for him to get so angry over something like that...." Then segued into the explanation over problems with emotional regulation, high-functioning autism, etc. Their eyes widened when they heard the "a" word--so they obviously knew about it but it had never occurred to them. Afterwards, they thanked me for coming over and explaining. And the good news is, after I left them, I went over to Batman and persuaded him to apologize for being so angry. He did, too, the next time he saw the girl.
So, at least that story had a happy ending, somewhat. As he gets older, outbursts like that freak people out more and more.
On the way home, he asked if he could go back to the farm to ride the roller coaster. He is nervous of roller coasters, so sat out when Robin and I rode it. I said next weekend. He demanded to know why we couldn't reverse time, got into a fight with Robin over it, and nearly bit him. For that, he lost his TV privileges for the evening. (The biting's got to stop, too. He is too old for that.)
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