Giants at Metlife Stadium!

I am blown away by these pictures.  Mikey is not wearing headphones.  I did not even remember that he didn’t always need them, but the photos don’t lie…no headphones.

This sends me into the autism mom rumination spiral.  I start to think, when did he start to plug his ears with his fingers? I know we gave him the headphones in response to that behavior, but have we overused them? Has he become too dependent on them? 

I know that if I let him use them too much, they will just make his hearing more sensitive.  Have I unwittingly caused this problem? Now I have to take a break from writing to make sure he isn’t wearing them in the house right now.

Okay, he wasn’t.  It is tough for us to know if we have made the right decisions.  We respond to our kids in the moment and we try to help them address the issues they are facing. I’m not sure if I did the right thing back then, but I wanted him to have his hands free to do other things (besides plugging his ears).

If we went to a Giants game today, Michael would want his headphones on before he even got out of the car to wind his way through the tailgates towards the stadium.  There is music blaring even in the parking lot and the stadium itself is deafening!  I don’t blame him for needing the headphones, and I try to make sure he does not use them in more quiet environments.

Compromise reached, peace achieved.  I’m letting go of this perseveration for now. Maybe I can spend some time thinking about how to help the Giants win? Ugh.