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.
I was at school from the early 90s to the mid 2000s. Academically I was very successful, but in every other way it was hell.
Looking back, it seems so obvious that the issues I had and the bullying I experienced were mostly because I was autistic, but of course in the 90s nobody really considered autism a possibility in little girls unless they had very clear intellectual disabilities as well, which I didn't. So I just carried on being the clumsy, socially awkward know-it-all who ate the same packed lunch every day for about a decade.
Whenever I read about parents worried that their kid is alone at breaktime I always think that I would have LOVED to be left alone. I always wanted to stay inside away from the other kids because they treated me terribly- as soon as I was in secondary school with lunchtime clubs and library access I never went into the playground again unless I was made to go!
I remember when I was older the library option was welcome if I had to be in school.