Target is NOT my favorite store any longer. The love affair is over. I’m sure that the people in Target on Tuesday were not very happy as well. Let me start by saying that Riley is still new to the diet and I haven’t taken him into stores because I don’t want him to see all the foods that he can’t have. Fair enough? Well, Riley had an eye doctor appointment this Tuesday and we had an hour to spare. I still needed some things for Valentines Day so I decided to go into the NON-FOOD section in Target. Right off the bat I spot Huge boxes of Goldfish Crackers in the area where the Hot Spot is on the food side. So I carefully guided him over the the movie and book section. So far, so good. We shopped for about twenty minutes until we hit the back of the store which should be pretty safe. Toys! Okay, we can look at toys. We still have time. Lo and behold, there is a wire hanging of some sort on the end cap with goldfish galore!! Many tiny boxes of goldfish ‘I will mess up your son’ crackers. The same goldfish with red dye #40 and other traces of petroleum in them. Riley looks at me, then looks at the goldfish and says, “Goldfish! I want goldfish!” I try to play it off, keep on walking and say, “No, No goldfish.” Then, being fully aware of what he was doing, Riley squeezed my hands, looked me in the eyes, and screamed bloody murder at the top of his lungs! I knew at that point that I could no longer stay in the store and I couldn’t disappear into thin air. I would have to walk to the front of the store while my son was screaming at the top of his lungs and stay calm. It must have taken what seems like half an hour to get to the front while Riley is still looking me in the eye and screaming on and off for the goldfish. I have no idea if people were looking at us or not. I was looking at Riley and calmly repeating that it would be okay and that we would eat in the car. He was still thinking about the goldfish. I finally made it pass the checkers and one Chinese Checker had the audacity the cover her ears so dramatically and ask, “What is that noise?” Still walking I said to her, “That’s what happens when you put food in the toy aisle, lady!” (I may have said some other things but I won’t admit to them at this time!)
Surely my son isn’t the only one who can’t have these bits of venom and has screamed and cried throughout the store, right? Why do stores put candy and crap in the toy aisle and at the check-outs? Why am I the only one complaining about it? Who decides this? Childless executives who hate kids?
That was just one example of the challenges of this diet. The other one happened at a restaurant. We went to a wonderful Mexican restaurant for my dad’s birthday Saturday night. I brought Riley’s special tortilla chips, we were all set. Instead he grabbed a chip from the middle of the table and tried to crawl over me to get to the queso that someone ordered on the other end of the table. We took him out of the restaurant and Alan drove him to Chick Fil-A for some safe french fries. By the time he got back, he had forgotten about the chips and queso, or accepted it, and ate his fries successfully. I still had a GFCF cupcake from VDAY so that is what he ate when everyone ate cake.
I’m sure there will be more of these incidents to come. I can’t wait for all the fun adventures that Autism will bring in the future.
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