I think it is about time that I introduced you to my son Sam. He is a very unusual young man, bright, funny, knowledgeable and totally obsessive. He has Asperger Syndrome, it makes life hard for him because he struggles with personal organisation, he hates his routines to be disrupted and he is not good at calculating risk. At his worse he is like an angry troll, but at his best he is charming, friendly and interested in absolutely everything. Does that sound like anyone you know!
When Sam was a little boy aged about three, he went through a phase when he insisted on wearing a shirt and tie at all times. He looked like a mini professor. His nursery was doing a topic on food and they took a group of children to visit the fish counter at Safeway’s. The children were able to see behind the scenes and Sam was enthralled with the whole experience. He talked about it for weeks afterwards until I was in danger of dreaming about wet fish!
Sam’s passion for dead fish, grew and every time we went to Safeways he would head off to the fish counter, pick a likely looking victim and interview them in detail about the origins and intimate details of the fish. Before long Sam knew more than they did. When he approached the fish counter I kept a discreet distance and tried to pretend he wasn’t mine, while the long suffering staff ran for cover! My mum thought it was cute; she claimed it was in his blood because her father had been a fishmonger. I knew it was well weird!
Sam is almost 12 now and many obsessions have come and gone. Thankfully dead fish are a thing of the past, his present ‘mastermind subject’ is Superman – the extent of his knowledge is terrifying. So you see I have no problems coping with Robbie because after Sam Robbie is a doddle!
No comments:
Post a Comment