No shame...

Yes people I feel no shame whatsoever when it comes my kids or myself. In actual fact I embrace the things that set them apart from the rest.  For example today, I was out to lunch with Knight in Shining Armour and Evangeline (aka Little) and Jack (aka Mr Middle). Jack was (as my husband likes to refer to it as) stimming his balls off. Lots of rocking and humming, playing with his hands and shaking his head. Now some people may sit there and feel embaressed, thinking "Why can't my child behave normally?". But in our case, hubby and I just looked at eachother and beamed. Mr Middle was happy as can be. We could enjoy our lunch for a start and we had awesome entertainment to boot! I had no idea if anyone was watching because I never checked and quite frankly didn't give two hoots if anyone was.
I have come to this place of understanding... I do not want to have my child be like everyone else. I do not want to be like everyone else myself. This isn't about being non-conforming. This is about being yourself without harming others or yourself. This is about having a comfortable space within one's own world. So what if you need to play with your hair to feel 'safe' or if your child needs to cover their ears when the noise becomes too overwhelming. Does it hurt others to do this? The only thing it might hurt is somebody's sense of normality. But as we all say these days "what is normal?".
I say celebrate what sets us and our children apart from the rest! I say yell it from the roof tops! Embrace what makes us unique! If we as adults can show how awesome it is to do this, our children will follow suit! Maybe then we can eradicate bullying and prejudice. Oh a world where we can be excited to share our eccentricities rather than hide those quirky differences. And believe you, me, we ALL have quirks and eccentricities.