My daughter Ainslee, diagnosed with Autism – PDD/nos, seizure disorder at the age of 5 is now 17 years old. In some ways she is pretty high functioning, but in others she is not. It has not been easy raising her and through the years we have been through some pretty difficult times.
When she was around 10 years old we noticed that she was starting to develop. Of course everything else about her was delayed but not puberty! We were concerned about how she would handle all of the changes that were going to happen to her body and mind. We convinced her teachers and counselor at school to do a girl’s group to explain puberty hoping that it would help for her to learn about it with other girls the same age.
We bought books about it, we tried as well as we could to explain in simple terms what growing up was. We lived in fear of the day she would get her period not knowing how she would handle it. Would she be upset about what was happening to her? What would she think when she saw something on her panties? Would she scream? Would she cry?
Well, the day finally came just before her 11th birthday and she was in the bathroom. My husband and I were in our room and she called us from the bathroom. She said, “Mom, Dad, hurry up, come here, I have a surprise to show you!”. Well, when Ainslee says that you never know what you are going to see. We both ran to the bathroom and stood in the doorway. She looked up, while she was sitting on the toilet and said, “Guess what? I got my period! I’m so happy, I’m growing up! Isn’t that exciting?” And she came over and gave us a big hug!
My husband and I just looked at each other, not knowing what to say. She was so happy and excited about it and we were so terrified! We expected her to be upset and here she was happy and excited! We were the ones who were upset!
And to this day Ainslee never ceases to amaze us. Her reactions to situations are never predictable. Some are good and some are bad but they are all always memorable!
Doreen Marcionetti
