Trade-Off

Rose and I went to a neat event at her elementary school last night, a Fun Walk/Run for the kids that was also a PTA fundraiser. There were T-shirts, and race numbers, and goofy warm-ups with one of the first-grade teachers, and picnicking on the lawn, and desserts to share, and the district superintendant & others were handing out little stretchy-bracelets to the kids for every lap completed. The weather was perfect, the turnout was huge.

And, I got to spend time talking with other parents I hadn't seen in a while! Two families in particular were once part of our regular routine but not so much lately -- one family for regular playdates, another we used to encounter last summer at Joy's swimming class. Both those evening time-slots have now been filled with intensive autism therapy for Joy. In fact, Joy was therapy-ing at home instead of Fun-Running and picnicking with me & Rose.

It's a trade-off. Intensive therapy fills a lot of time that we used to have available for other things.

On the other hand, if I'd had Joy at the Fun Run, I wouldn't have been available to catch up with the other parents, because I'd have been Joy-minding...

I also put together in my mind something that I'd not been tracking with, for both these families. They both have older kids in Rose's grade, and both also have younger daughters a little younger than Joy.

Both those younger daughters will be starting kindergarten at the same time as Joy, since we're holding off on kindergarten for another year!

I think I need to make better efforts to keep Joy well-acquainted with these two classmates-to-be. And also to make sure we bring Joy to next year's Fun Run. Wonder how many laps she'll be willing to do, if I go with her?