Shhhh, Can You Keep a Secret?

I do not care one bit about what kind of kid you have, whether they be short, tall, young, old, slow, fast, autistic, not autistic, whatever . . . sometimes you have to take care of yourself and that might involve hiding in your closet eating the last two slices of bread!

Guess what I was just doing? I was eating a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich while sitting in my closet and not one other person in my home knew about it.

You see, there were only three slices of bread left (plus the crust). We don’t eat the crust in our home because, well, we just don’t. Which meant not everyone could have a sandwich with two slices of bread.

I really, really wanted a sandwich with two slices of bread. This is not normally a “thing” for me, but I recently joined Weight Watchers and I had enough points to enjoy the entire sandwich for dinner.

Michael is mostly still on his white diet, you know the one if you have a child on the spectrum, but Mason–that kid is always hungry. He was playing outside and I had enough time if I was lucky to make the sandwich and eat it before he was any the wiser. He had rice and other leftovers he was meant to eat, but he loves a good sandwich.

So I rushed and got all the ingredients out, made the sandwich, turned on the burner (it had to be grilled because I wanted it grilled and we might be able to surmise that Michael may have gotten some of his OCD traits from me–maybe–but who knows about these things?), put all the ingredients away, and I started cooking it. I kept hearing house noises, so I was jumpy the entire time I was trying to make this sandwich. I did not have to share with my kids. I’m feeling okay about myself, so we’re clear. I don’t normally sneak food from my kids, and knowing me, I would have shared the sandwich or outright given it to Mason had he caught me. His love language is food for sure.

Hah! I did it. I made the sandwich and nobody came inside to bust me. But I was too nervous to eat it in the open where I could be caught sandwich-handed at any moment. So I made the very mature choice to go upstairs and hide in my closet where nobody will find me.

I tried not to leave evidence downstairs. I threw the hot pan in the sink, hoping it wouldn’t burn the plastics already in there, but I thought I heard them coming and I was as jumpy as a jack rabbit. I threw the spatula in the sink as well, but if they saw the oven light, they might suspect something. Nothing happened. Nobody came in.

I snuck my hidden sandwich to my closet and it was there that I devoured that sandwich. Man oh man, was it worth it! It was SO worth it!

An innocent secret can be lots of fun. Other secrets are harder to talk about, but I wanted to share that keeping things from our kids is sometimes completely OK. I do have an honesty policy with my children. It’s something like, “I will not keep secrets from you unless it is not appropriate in my opinion, adult-related material, or could harm you if you knew.” Otherwise, I am mostly an open book with my kids, and I believe that is so important.

But that sandwich was so worth every jumpy second.

And you? How do you feel about secrets with your children? I’d love to know in the comments below.

What sandwich?

Mica

Thank you for reading and please forward to any friends who might need a parenting boost if they have kids on the autism spectrum. We’re in this together!