Quirky Quips & Backseat Banter - Presidential Disqualifiers

The public inclusion school that James attends in our district is second to none. After he was moved around to 3 different schools in the first 4 years, I fought like hell to get him into this one. It is the only school that is able offer the small and nurturing environment he needs to feel safe as well as the social, emotional and academic support he needs to be able to thrive. AND it goes through 12th grade.

Three years later, I still feel like I won the lottery every day.

They have an incredible (and FREE!) after-school program with fun activities focused on improving social skills. As much as James dislikes school work and being away from home, he has asked to stay late every day this year to participate in the after-school program.

Unbelievable, right? There must be a catch. Right?

There's always a catch...

It is clear across the city from where I live, so driving home at rush hour is a nightmare. Luckily there are a handful of kids from our side of town who go to school together, so my friend Patty and I set up an "after after-school" carpool to get them all home.

As you can imagine, if you drive a bunch of kids who have just been released after 8 hours of following rules and behaving in school and who are now crammed together in the back seat of a car to be stuck in traffic for 30 - 45 minutes, you are bound to get some pretty awesome sound bites.

Especially if most of those kids are literal thinkers who happen to be on the autism spectrum.

Patty was lucky enough to be driving the day of this fabulous interaction. She is also lucky she didn't pee her pants laughing...

Sean: "Justin Bieber can't be President of the United States because he was born in Canada."

James: "John Lennon can't be President either."

(slight pause)

"Because he's dead."

(longer, seemingly reflective pause)

"Being dead is lame."

All kids in rare agreement: "yeah, it is SO lame!"