At the Barber Shop
July 1, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
“So who do you think sat in the chair next to Charlie at the barber’s?” Jim asked me. Charlie, sporting a fine buzz cut, had seated himself at the kitchen table with a bag from McDonald’s.
As testament to how close a parent can be to her child, I came down with the stomach thing Charlie had earlier this week and spent the better part of Saturday in bed, and therefore my response to Jim’s answer to his own question was less….. elaborate than it might have been. This was Jim’s answer:
“[Name of special education director of the town we used to live in who suggested a helmet; deemed an aide suitable for Charlie even though she had not spent one minute with him or spoken to us because she had worked with a certain other student in the class; hired a behavior consultant who himself told us that the director was his friend; told me he didn't mean to "shove" a certain placement down "my throat"....... etc., etc.].”
As I said, due to being quite queasy, my response was not as uproarious as it might have been. “How’d Charlie do?” I managed.
“Charlie sat in the chair the whole time by himself while he got his hair cut and I talked to another family with three kids—who had ADHD—-the whole time.”
“And did [special ed director who has since risen in the ranks] recognize you two?”
“Oh yes.”
Oh to have been a fly on the wall in the barber shop! How sweet it must have felt for Jim (and Charlie, too). Heh heh heh. LOVE IT!
In my dream, I meet the special education director in hell. She says, “I know why I’m here, but what on earth are you doing here?” I answer, “It’s because of what I swore to do after K’s first IEP meeting.”
I was kind of thinking of calling this post “in the hot seat.”
Cool. It’s neither here nor there to Charlie, but I bet Jim loved it!
Just getting a good haircut is always good in itself but a little extra for dad…..
Sweet on the haircut and SWEET on the audience!
I’m grinning from ear to ear!
It was a memorable moment for numerous reasons……
I remember the first time I had my haircut. Everyone else who happened to be there did to, because I cried inconsolably the entire time. Even now, a substantial haircut is such a painful sensory experience that I’d rather have a whole host of nasty things happen before that, and in one of the few substantial haircuts since (we did trim it, of course), I had to wear a hat everywhere for over half a month. So it’s good to hear of an experience so… foreign to that.
Cliff
Charlie initially did not like getting his hair cut, at all. My husband worked on it with him — we used to take Charlie to a kids’ haircutting place but a barber (rather gruff and no nonsense) has worked out well.
Personally, I dislike getting my own hair cut!
I tried Nick with an older barber once and he yelled at him the whole time to stop fidgeting. Now we go to another salon that has a male there and he is chatty with Nick and always asks about Matt since sometimes he comes too, but we only tried once and it did not take place.
I have wanted to start a company like the animal dog care vans I see where they do it inside the vehicle and have this the autism hair cut van. Maybe someday I can make this happen.