Today was haircut day. And like many of you know, this is torture for kids in the spectrum. But lately, my husband has been giving the monkey trims every few weeks so his cuts haven’t been so bad. In fact, with many breaks and soothing words to calm my son down, he’s been doing pretty good.
But today we made a mistake. We used the wrong clipper size. We went too short. We couldn’t leave him with a large bald spot. So we had to do a full blown hair cut.
It was torture. He screamed and fought.
In the end, my husband and I ended up with many scratches.
But after he calmed down, and he was showered, I realized something. During the monkey’s struggle, you could see his fear of the clippers. I hurt my finger and got a small cut. My monkey noticed I was in pain. He ignored the clipper. And while my husband was cutting his hair, the monkey looked at me in the eyes, and kept kissing me, trying to make me feel better.
He put his fear and struggle aside, and was focused on my pain. When I read that kids with autism don’t have empathy, my response is, Yes. Yes they do.
My son’s kisses are proof.
Monkeynism AKA Autism 