Mucous Paintings: Raising A Son With Special Needs

There are so many dirty little secrets we parents of Special Needs people do not talk about.  Frankly, I am a bit tired and worn down that some of my loved ones wonder why I get so sad about Willie, why the burden of caring for him becomes so daunting at times. So today I am going to reveal one of those nasty secrets so maybe others can get a small glimpse into why I don't feel so grateful that Willie is as awesome as he truly is and maybe why I am so grumpy these days.  My hope then is to make those other parents in my club not feel so alone and ashamed. And of course to help those non-Special Needs people out there to be a tad more empathic.

The topic today is Mucous Paintings.  We named Willie's masterpieces this years ago.  It is rather disgusting truthfully.  But Willie literally takes his mucous and smears it on the car window, the house window, or lately his bedroom wall.  You may wonder why after 2 decades of Mucous Paintings, we haven't nipped this one in the bud. Well, it's just not that easy. Kleenex available doesn't stop them. Verbal prompts do no good. Social stories to no avail. And honestly Willie's other nasty behaviors are much worse so I tell myself, hey what is so bad about Mucous Paintings?

Last night I was cleaning Willie's mucous from his walls.  I know, it is disgusting! And I thought to myself, I have finally found the perfect technique.  Because as you most likely cannot imagine, mucous is very hard to remove.  As I sat there with my the scrubby side of my sponge, my paper towels, the butter knife and some soap, I just couldn't get it out of my head that I so needed to tell someone, anyone, that I knew the perfect solution for cleaning Mucous Paintings. It was as if my brain had created a jingle for a commercial on TV.  Then it dawned on me as I angrily scrubbed, that this issue isn't talked about, so clearly there was no audience on TV for my technique.  And then my mind went to all the other secrets we keep as parents of Special Needs children. And then I realized that those secrets just get more humiliating, uglier, more embarrassing and super more inappropriate as your Special Needs child grows into a Special Needs adult.

I wanted to cry. But I can't right now, for sometimes I am just too shut down.  So I scrubbed and scrubbed and got Willie's wall sparkling.  I stuffed my secret cleaning tip back into that hidden file in my brain.  Except now I share it here.  And I am mortified to share this story but am too compelled not to.

My wish is that we parents would share our secrets like Willie's Mucous Paintings, as it eases some of the pain. Maybe we could make an Infomercial at least? Or chuckle?