Abby Connolly
When your friend has a child with special needs, you want to be as accommodating as possible to show them support.
However, one woman had to put her foot down after her friend’s son with autism started crossing boundaries during a recent dinner gathering.
She’s 30 years old and recently moved to a new city. However, she’s still in touch with her friend group from her previous town, which includes her 37-year-old friend Anna.
Anna is married to her husband and has an 11-year-old son named Jim. Jim has level one autism spectrum disorder, so he often needs support and can have trouble understanding or following social rules and interactions.
A few days ago, she visited her old town and reached out to her friends to schedule a group dinner at a local restaurant.
Anna mentioned she’d bring Jim, and their friend group didn’t have a problem with this since Jim had joined them on their outings before.
They all met at the restaurant, and the final group consisted of six adults and Jim. However, things eventually went south during their friend reunion.
“Everything was great until [the] first courses arrived, and Jim started walking around the table, using his hands to help himself from other people’s plates,” she said.
She was shocked to see Jim doing this to everyone at the table and leaned over to her friend Tom to ask if this behavior was normal. He said it was as Jim eventually approached her to put his hands in her salad.
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