Real Moms and Music Therapy

Taylor finally started music therapy two weeks ago at the Baio Clinic. I had tried for what seemed like forever to find music therapy for him; I thought it would be perfect since he loves music and hopefully could learn positive ways to express his thoughts and such while having fun and interacting with the other kids. I still can't get him to really tell me what he thinks about it, but I love it! The first session was a bad day for me, I did something old ladyish to my back and could barely move. Brooks came home early and drove us there, he stayed in the car with our sleeping princess and I went into the office with Taylor. Thankfully they had a great selection of celebrity gossip mags, but as entertaining as the articles were, the people watching in the waiting room was even better. I have to disclose that I was wearing grey sweats, my orange Phoenix Suns shirt and the pair of shoes Brooks handed me, which happened to be bright pink flip flops with a big flower over the toe. I had no makeup on and of course my hair was in a ponytail. The room was crowded with other moms and kids; the lady across from me had a stomach roll to rival mine, the other mom on my right had shoes that matched about as well as mine did and the mom across from me was rocking a pair of mom jeans and a tshirt. Obviously there wasn't a nanny in the room, certainly no one was wearing makeup and even the lone dad looked like he needed to catch up on some serious sleep. This was my kind of room!

I am sure all of us ASD parents have heard that we need to take care of ourselves or time some extra "me" time, but let's be honest. That hardly happens even when you have a typical child. If I am not laden with guilt if I take some extra time to (God forbid) do my hair then surely some crisis happens when I am trying to get ready or I spend all my time getting the kids ready and don't have any left for myself if we want to get anywhere on time; Brooks is lucky if I shave on a daily basis. So while it sounds like I am criticizing the other parents, really I love them! Thank goodness this room was filled with reality!

So how is music therapy going? His therapist says he is doing well,and I can hear them banging away on the drums or the therapist on the guitar when I am sitting in the waiting room so it sounds like he is having fun. He still won't tell me anything, when I ask he replies "I don't know." But if it's up to me, it's fantastic.