Boy Scouts

My Oldest Dude is now a Boy Scout. He "Crossed Over" into Boy Scouts last month. We chose a troop that had had special needs boys (they currently have a boy with Aspberger's and another who has focusing issues). Oldest attended his second Boy Scout meeting and there is a funny story attached to it.


Last night, Oldest had his second meeting with the boy scouts. The Hub was a little concerned after the first one (he said stuff about the older boys were popular....boy scouts popular?). Anyway, they had a fun night last night. They were learning about first aid and how to move someone if they are injured. Somehow, Oldest was volunteered to be the injured boy. He got to be carried on a stretcher by four boys (as they were moving him, he shouted, "Go to the hospital!"). Then, he was carried by one boy (so dragged along on the stretcher). He thought that was really funny. The boys 'raced' to see who could go the fastest.

One thing that was interesting....there's been a lot of 'talk' since last week's "Parenthood" (an NBC show) about how to tell your child who has autism, that, they have autism. In the show (I only watched last week's episode, so I don't know much else about the characters), the elementary school boy finds out accidently that he has Aspberger's and the parents figure out how to tell him and explain it to him. There is a boy in the troop who has Aspberger's. Somehow, The Hub got talking to him (and The Hub explained, "My Oldest son has autism, etc"....the boy said to The Hub, "I have Aspberger's and it is autism")....while they were outside doing the races, the boy was explaining to The Hub, "there are x number of fire sirens" and all of the other noises that were outside (he was evidently having a tough time focusing). Anyway, it was interesting that the boy knew all about his Aspberger's and then, could verbalize what it is, etc. As you know, we've never made a secret of Oldest's autism or anything. Oldest, for sure, knows he's different and on some level knows he has autism, but whether or not he knows "this is how it manifests in him" is probably a higher order of thinking.