When I was a kid, like almost everyone else in our country, I used to go somewhere to see the fireworks.

Ironically, for us, the issue is actually not the Monster, because he loves fireworks.  The issue is R, who can’t stay up that late routinely if we’re going to want him to be useful the next day.

There is the popular saying in our community that, if you know one child with Autism, you know one child with Autism.  We do know a lot of children who are sensory adverse, who wear headphones routinely in various environments or react a little too strongly to some of the sounds around them.  And indeed, the Monster does fall into this category with the vast majority of fans and blowers – he can’t stand them, and will absolutely flip out at their sound.

On the other hand, he loves fireworks.  He’ll happily sit through a baseball game if there’s enough food to keep him going until the fireworks afterwards, when we go to night games.  (He’s also doing a little better with ventilation fans in bathrooms – he tolerated the one at my office on a recent weekend stop there.)  I think that, if we didn’t have R with us, he’d probably make it through the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s concert tonight to watch the fireworks, or through any of the half-a-dozen different events around our area if we told him what was going on.

I actually don’t know what he’d think of it if we let him stay up to watch a fireworks display on television, though… and he’ll probably want to go to bed ‘on time’ since we’re not going out.  I’m inclined to let him, since we’re going to have a full weekend as it is.

There’ll be other Fourths of July.  This year, though, we’ll just be at home relaxing and watching it on television.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone.