Published on 12, July, 2020
I have noticed questions by carers about their children during lunch breaks. This got me thinking of my own experience.
I left school over 40 years ago and it is only in the last few years I realized I was autistic.
When I was at school a lot of lessons were quite formal which suited me. However when it came to lunchtime as all the schools I went to were nearby I went home for lunch. In the Junior school quite a few people went home for lunchtime which was nearly an hour and a half. Most occasions when I stayed it was for a club but I didn't like being at school for the whole day and especially the long lunch break.
I wonder if modern schools are more of a challenge for autistics.
On my first day at infant school, I can remember walking into the school hall with my 1970s 'Morph' lunchbox and having my senses assaulted by an overpowering smell of burgers, chips, and tomato ketchup. A few minutes later, I threw up. Turns out I had Tonsillitis, but the combination of food smells put me off enjoying lunchtime in the school hall.
After starting junior school, my parents decided to let me have my own house key. This was mainly because when I was playing outside, I had a tendency to want to be let into the house to use the toilet, get a snack, a toy, etc. Having my own key meant that my mother wasn't constantly having to drop whatever she was busy with to keep answering the door to me. What my parents didn't realise until several months later was that I had been coming home at lunchtime. As I didn't really enjoy school, spending my lunch hour at home helped to make the school day slightly more bearable.
Things changed when I went to secondary school. It wasn't local, and only 6th-form students were allowed to leave the school premises at lunchtime.
What seems almost laughable to me now is that considering how much I disliked school, I thought I wanted to be a nursery or primary school teacher. When I realised that I would need to go away to university, it put me right off. From my perspective, school was like a prison sentence, and the prospect of spending another two or three years at university would just be extending that sentence.
Thinking back to when I was at junior school, it generally tended to be the case during break times that the boys would play on one side of the playground, whilst the girls played on the other side. As I was a bit of a Tomboy, I wanted to be kicking a football around with the boys. Unfortunately, the boys made it clear that they weren't happy to have a girl invading their territory. At the time, this seemed terribly unfair.
Thank you for sharing your memories. Playing football sounds a better option to pass the time than trying to make conversation or being alone.