Driving and scrapping

Graham and I went out driving at the Friday Center parking lot for the 3rd time today. He put the car in reverse for the first time, which is an odd thing for sure. There are very few analogous experiences in life, there's not even much that preps you for that in the experience of riding a bike. I suppose back in the day bumper cars helped prep us a little. But my kids have never been into going to the rides or the State Fair -- we were never really at the beach enough for it to be an issue.

In a recent conversation with another parent of a kid on the spectrum, I learned that that kid -- now a college graduate -- was living at home and refused to go places because he didn't know his way around town, except to go to the gym. So I am beginning, as consistently and programmatically as possible, to try to get Graham to pay attention to where we are going and to have him give me directions to common places we go. It is surprising how little attention he pays, how few places he knows how to get to. So we will work on that.

After I got back Mary and I got into a little scrap. As a matter of policy, I don't delve much into marital difficulties here on the blog. Ultimately for us -- and I think for many -- many of our disagreement come down to the question of who is giving up the most, who is making the greatest sacrifice, for the sake of the household. Which is a tough thing to work through. But conversations with many others, women as well as men, confirm that I/we are not alone in this.