Published on 12, July, 2020
What so called "childish" or innocent pursuits does anyone have?
Myself, I like blowing bubbles. I always have a pot of them in the car, and often take them out when I go on a walk and sit down and blow them and watch them float gently over the landscape or historic site. I do find it very therapeutic and suppose it is a sort of stimming although it is usually done when I am calm, although sometimes I must say when I have had a difficult few minutes I get the urge to blow them.
I also love watching old children's television programmes from when I was young. Catweazel, the Gerry Anderson puppet series (Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and even Four Feather Falls), Follyfoot (I fell in love with Dora as a teenager!).
And I am never far from my recorder. Although I stopped being taught at the age of 11, I carried on with playing it and even though my music reading is below very basic I can pick out a tune and change the key to suit very easily.
So does anyone else have these sort of so called childish pursuits and what are they?
Wellington, yes, I think you have highlighted the tendency of autistics to disregard the desire to 'conform' to social norms and act in a way that pleases them, not other people.
In a way, I feel a bit sorry for some people who are terrified of going against the accepted fashions of the day because they often have to 'act out' their behaviour in order to follow the herd and don't really know how to enjoy themselves any more.
The other day I happened to be in a shop and they asked me if they could have my cell phone number for purposes of sending me texts messages and, to my embarrassment, I couldn't remember it as I rarely use it for making calls. But then I thought, why did I feel so caught out by this? Why should I be automatically expected to carry around such details in my head when there is so much else to think about?
This is the point. We seem to be carried along by fashions and if we don't allow ourselves to be dominated by what other people want us to be we can tend to be looked on as 'odd' or 'eccentric'.