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Many thanks to the Toys R Us in Times Square. I didn’t catch the nice salesgirl’s name, but when she asked us at checkout if we wanted to donate a buck for Autism, my wife gave her a “heck yes” and told her about our daughter who was waiting nicely for us to purchase tickets on the indoor ferris wheel.

She was a young lady and was thinking of pursuing something related to special education or children or something to that effect at college (dad’s don’t always catch 100% of a story like this).

She did tell me that she knew kids with Autism are “very organized.” I said, “Yes, yes” and didn’t get into an Autism discussion with her. We chuckled over this “very organized” definition when we got in the ferris wheel. If only, that were it.

I did ask, “can you let us jump to the front of the ferris wheel line?” and she said “sure.” OK, I was loving Toys R Us at that moment. It didn’t take a lot to win over an Autism parent in a situation like this since in a lot of cases waiting in line could be a disaster in the making.

Things with our 6 year old daughter (PDD-NOS) were a little shaky this night. She is pretty good about waiting in lines MOST of the time. This night, however, she was sick and tired. Literally, nasty cold and tired after a day of NYC sight-seeing. If we had to wait in a long line, I would say it was about 75/25 as to how that experience would turn out.

• 75% fine, all good
• 25% total frickin’ nightmare.

Toys R Us let us bypass the whole situation and jump to the front of the line. Thanks, Toys R Us. A meltdown would have meant that we would have probably left the store without purchasing any toys, so it is great business for them as well.

My love of Toys R Us was somewhat diminished later when our daughter who has been having some mini-social breakthroughs of late ran up to hug the big giraffe mascot. The dude taking the pictures would not let me take her picture with the giraffe unless she was behind line, 5 feet away. If you wanted the picture up close, you had to let them take it and buy from them. That’s all fine and good, but she ran up and hugged the giraffe and struck the most perfect pose.

I tried to get picture off, but he distracted me with his lecture on “THIS IS WHAT WE DO” and why I couldn’t snap my own picture. The moment was lost. She had already said hello to the giraffe and recreating such moments of cuteness usually doesn’t work out too well. I wish I had just snapped it and asked for forgiveness later. I was arguing when I should have been taking the picture. I couldn’t get the “she has Autism” number out on him in the split second needed to get the picture.

They hound you to buy pictures at a few other places in the store. When you come in the front door and when on the ferris wheel, they snap your picture and then try to sell it to you.

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Filed under: AutismDad, Family, Autism in the USA, Autism Awareness, Autism Around the World