Chill Out

We go to the library every Tuesday. The neurologist suggested putting AJ in as many social environments as possible to help him with his social skills. We have been coming to our local library's toddler time since February. When we first started he would run all over the room 'cause the large open space was just too tempting to pass up. Then he would sit in my lap and refuse to participate. Then he would participate as long as mommy was doing the motions too. But today, oh today, was beautiful. He sat next to his brother, not on my lap. He stood up when everyone else did. He did the motions to all the songs without even looking at me. He stood in line without any prompting from mommy to go get his sticker at the end. Today was a great accomplishment for AJ.
Until....
One little boy, couldn't have been more than 15months old, kept walking up to AJ and touching him. AJ doesn't like for strangers to touch him. He politely backed up and gave the child his warning screech. The child wouldn't quit and the mommy made no attempt to come and get him. I saw potential for a bad situation. And I started planning my speech. "Um, see he has autism, well not really autism but PDD, but its on the spectrum of autism. And well he doesn't like for people to get in his personal space. And, um, he doesn't speak much so he really only knows how to screech to let you know he doesn't like what you're doing." I had this whole monologue running through my mind and watched this child continue to poke AJ and I tried to intervene in a very polite way since the other mommy wasn't making a move.
And then she looks at me as if to say, "Chill out, he is just a baby."
And all the sudden I realized, I don't have to qualify AJ or his reactions. Why do I owe her a speech? She's not offering one to me about the fact that her child doesn't respect personal space or about how he has problems with touching complete strangers.
If her kid doesn't have to wear his problems around his neck, why should I hang AJ's diagnosis around his neck.
Today was a success regardless of our little situation. And actually, the "situation" showed me my child may have a diagnosis but everyone has issues :)
Afterall, we all need to "Chill out. They are just kids."
So this post isn't full of revelation maybe, but it opened my mind and allowed me to understand maybe for the first time, that AJ isn't so different from the rest of the world.