About us

Update

Into year four of compiling this blog. I have to admit to being very tardy of late when it comes to adding new visits to the blog. We have struggled a bit, as a family, over the past year, with health issues and other personal stuff going on which has pushed the idea of adding to the website to the back of my mind for a while.

I'm hoping, with our upcoming holidays and days out, I will be able to kickstart my contributions and add more places we have visited.

I hope you continue to enjoy my ramblings.

While I hate asking for donations, if you feel that my work on this blog is worthwhile then a click on the button at the bottom of this page and a donation of anything you can afford, would be much appreciated, and would allow me to pay the fees to continue to run this blog. either way, thanks for reading.

Take a deep breath. Dive in.

My wife and I have been living with a child affected by autism, amongst many other health conditions, for the last 9 years now, and think we have come to terms with what this means, to us and him, although to be fair, he is always ready to surprise us!

We like to get out as much as possible, giving him, and us, lots of different experiences. This is an attempt to plot out what we have achieved and hope to achieve in the future with the boy we call our Little One.

Hopefully, someone out there will get a little benefit from my thoughts and ramblings, if so, then please let me know on the contact page, to be honest, if you disagree with anything I have typed, also let me know!

Checking out the tabs to the left (or possibly right on a mobile) you will see all the places we have visited and how we have coped taking a boy with complex needs out with us for the day. Enjoy...

LITTLE ONE

Let me introduce Little One, pictured with my wife, during our trip to Scotland in 2023.

This remarkable young man has had a very tough start in life. He has a chromosome condition (Distal 18q) that inhibits his physical and mental growth, he also has foetal alcohol syndrome, which does pretty much the same. On top of this, he has Global Developmental Delay, is moderately deaf, non-verbal, is double incontinent, has one kidney - and oh! of course, is autistic.

Despite all these challenges, he is an absolute treasure and just loves to be out and about - which is just as well, as so do we!

It's a long way down!

Clearly as "parents" to an autistic child we understand that every child is different, and that no two autistic children present in the same way.

For us our Little One is atypical in as much as he doesn't really have the meltdowns that many autistic children and parents are challenged by. He can get a little stressed when he is unable to let us know what it is he wants, but to be honest we have got really good at reading the cues. His worst time is when he is woken from a sleep unexpectedly - then he is like a bear with the proverbial sore head. Oh! and when he can't get wi-fi on his tablet.

Little One walks a lot now, his Special Needs buggy being gracefully retired to our garage. Unless we are somewhere remote and safe Little One will always be walked on a wrist strap, for his safety. He still gets tired after a lot of walking, which can result in him getting a bit tetchy by the evening, but it is a small price to pay to see him out and about and happy!

I have, in the past, used a really good child carrier, from Baby Tula, where I carried him on my back. I had been able to successfully use the carrier in Scotland, tackling the foothills of Ben Nevis and the Llanberis Path, up Mount Snowdon. Like the buggy, the carrier has now been retired, but was a godsend at the time, the carrier giving Little One a different perspective to being pushed in his buggy.

I will detail what, if any, assistance we used for each day out I write about.

*Please check with any venues mentioned here for latest information. All information provided here was correct at the time of our visits.

If you have liked what you have read on my blog, and would like to make a contribution to maintaining this page online, then I would be extremely grateful for any assistance you can give.