BLVL – Emotion

Autism parents… please tell me we’re not the only ones financially recovering from our child’s special interests. 😂💸 Because apparently having ONE wasn’t enough. My autistic son discovered: Baseball. Hockey. WWE. And our bank account said: Absolutely not. 💀 (okay fine!) 🫠😂 If you’re raising an autistic child with a special interest, you know there’s a BIG difference between… “My kid likes hockey.” and… “My kid needs to know absolutely everything there is to know about hockey.” 😂 The players. The jersey numbers. The stats. The teams. And then there’s WWE… The wrestlers. The entrance music. The championship titles. The signature moves. ALL. OF. IT. And once your child loves something this much, you naturally want to give them opportunities to experience those interests in real life. Which is how our autism family travel adventures somehow started including… ✈️ Flying to Montreal for his first NHL hockey game. 🤼 WWE SummerSlam in Minneapolis. ⚾️ And an MLB baseball game while we were there. Then come the tickets. The hotels. The food. The merch. The travel. And suddenly your family travel budget has become the special-interest budget. But then you see their face. You watch your child walk into a stadium or arena and experience something they’ve talked about, learned about and genuinely LOVE. And suddenly you’re thinking… Okay, fine. Take my money. 😂 Because one of my favourite parts of raising autistic kids is getting to experience the things they love through their eyes. Is it expensive? Painfully. 🫠 Would we do it all again? In a heartbeat. 🥹🩵 Follow @dreamjartravels for honest autism parenting, autism family travel, and real-life adventures with autistic kids. ✈️ #autismparenting #specialinterests #autismfamily #autismtravel familytravels

I could give you 100 reasons why @wwe SummerSlam might be “too much” for my autistic son. The noise. The lights. The crowds. The unpredictability. A stadium filled with thousands of people. But there was one powerful reason we felt confident saying yes… WWE is one of his special interests. And I don’t mean he just enjoys wrestling. He knows the wrestlers, entrance music, championship titles, signature moves, who’s fighting who and exactly who he wants to win. 😂 So when we realized WWE SummerSlam was happening in Minneapolis (a “short” drive from Northern Ontario 😂), we planned part of our family trip around it. And this is something I’ve learned through traveling with autistic kids that I wish more parents understood: Sometimes the easiest way to introduce something unfamiliar is through something they already love. Special interests can offer a familiar piece of an unfamiliar experience. Something predictable. Something exciting. Something they understand. But his love of WWE doesn’t make his sensory needs disappear. We still prepared. We brought his noise-cancelling headphones. He knew we could take a “body break” (sensory break) whenever needed, and leaving early was always an option. And? He absolutely LOVED it. 🥹 That’s why planning family travel around an autistic child’s special interests can be such a powerful tool. We’re not removing every challenge. We’re giving him a reason to WANT to navigate something new. And it doesn’t require SummerSlam or a huge vacation. Love trains? Take a train ride. Animals? Try a new zoo. Planes? Visit an aviation museum. Dinosaurs? Find a dinosaur exhibit or themed mini golf. Start with what already lights them up and build outward. For us, special interests have become one way we help our son safely experience more of the world. And watching him inside U.S. Bank Stadium, completely immersed in something he loves? This. This is why. 🥹🩵 Follow @dreamjartravels for honest autism parenting, autism family travel, and practical way to help autistic kids experience more of the world. ✈️ #autismtravel #autismparenting #specialinterests #autisticchildren

Apparently one expensive special interest wasn’t enough. 😂 My autistic son decided he needed at least TWO… Hockey & WWE. And when I say these are his special interests, I don’t mean he casually enjoys watching them. He wants to know EVERYTHING. The hockey players. The wrestlers. The jersey numbers. The stats. The entrance music. The storylines. Who won. Who lost. Who’s wrestling next. Who’s playing next. ALL. OF. IT. 😂 So naturally, his special interests have started influencing our family travel too. One trip had my husband flying with our son to Montreal for first NHL game. Another had us sitting inside U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis watching WWE SummerSlam. Our bank account may have some feelings about this arrangement… but getting to watch my autistic child experience the things he loves this deeply? Worth every penny. 🥹 There’s something really incredible about watching an autistic child experience a special interest in real life. These are crowded and loud environments. Places that, on paper, you might assume would be overwhelming for an autistic child. And often they absolutely can be. But with preparation, sensory supports, his noise-cancelling headphones, and the ability to step away when he needs to, we’ve watched him absolutely thrive. His special interests haven’t just brought him joy. They’ve also become one of the ways we help him experience new things. When a new city, live event, or travel experience is connected to something he already knows and loves, there’s familiarity inside the unfamiliar. We’re not removing every challenge. We’re giving him a reason to WANT to navigate something new. Sometimes our kids’ special interests can become a bridge to experiences we weren’t sure would ever be possible for them. And watching his world expand because of something he loves? That part is priceless. The flights, hotels, NHL tickets, WWE tickets and merch? My bank account would like a word. 🫠 Follow @dreamjartravels for honest autism parenting, autism family travel, and real-life experiences that help families feel more confident exploring the world with their autistic kids.

Nobody prepared me for the financial consequences of an autistic child discovering his special interest. 😂🏒 And when I say my son loves hockey… I don’t mean he just likes watching a game. He wants to know the players’ first and last names. Their ages. Their jersey numbers. How many goals they’ve scored. How many games they’ve won. The stats. The teams. ALL of it. 😂 (And yes, if you noticed that a lot of this involves numbers, you’d be correct. 😂) So naturally, having an autistic child whose special interest is hockey eventually led us here… ✈️ Flying to Montreal. 🏒 Tickets to his first NHL hockey game. 👕 His first jersey. 🍿 The arena snacks. 💸 You get the idea. 😂 Expensive? Absolutely. But getting to watch your child experience something they’re deeply passionate about? Worth every penny. 🥹🩵 And honestly, this is one of my favourite parts about raising autistic kids. Their special interests can bring SO much joy. We watched his face light up walking into the arena. He knew exactly who he was there to see. He soaked in every second of his first NHL game. And with preparation, his noise-cancelling headphones, and the supports he needed, an environment that could easily have been overwhelming became one of his favourite experiences. That’s something I wish more people understood about autistic children and special interests. Sometimes the very thing that motivates our kids to step into a new, loud, busy or unfamiliar environment is having something they deeply love waiting for them there. And as an autism parent, getting to experience their world alongside them is pretty incredible. Even if apparently I need to add “autistic child’s special interests” as a new category in the family travel budget. 😂💸 Follow @dreamjartravels for honest autism parenting, autism family travel, and real-life adventures that help families feel more confident exploring the world with their autistic and neurodivergent kids. ✈️ #autismparenting #autismtravel #autisticchildren #autismfamily #specialinterests

I don’t know who needs to hear this… but this man deserves a Nobel Prize. 😂 “I’ve already booked the vacation… and arranged the childcare.” Honestly? Forget the beach. Forget the all-inclusive. Forget the flights. The childcare is the real luxury. 🤣 If you’re raising autistic children, you know exactly what I mean. Getting away isn’t just about booking a hotel. It’s finding someone your children trust. Someone who understands the routines. The sensory needs. The communication style. The medications. The safe foods. The little things that help your child feel calm, regulated, and secure. For many autism families, that’s the hardest part of planning a trip. And I think that’s why so many couples quietly stop prioritizing time together. Not because they don’t love each other. Not because they don’t want to reconnect. But because finding trusted childcare can feel impossible. I’ve realized that a strong marriage isn’t built on grand gestures. It’s built in the small decisions to keep choosing each other. In between therapy appointments. IEP meetings. Endless paperwork. School emails. Daily routines. And the beautiful, exhausting chaos of raising autistic kids. So if someone has ever made it possible for you to step away for a date night… A grandparent. A trusted respite worker. A family member. A close friend. Tell them thank you. Because they didn’t just give you childcare. They gave you time. Space to reconnect. A chance to simply be husband and wife again. And that’s a gift I’ll never take for granted. 🩵 ✨ Follow @dreamjartravels for honest autism parenting, autism family travel, and real conversations about raising autistic children while still choosing each other. #autismparents #autismparent #familytravels

One thing parents don’t talk about enough? Sometimes your child’s sensory needs are the complete opposite of your own. 😂 If your child loves to run, jump, bounce, climb, and move their body… This place @thebigbounceamerica might feel like the best day of their life. For my autistic kids? It was absolute heaven. For my neurodivergent nervous system? Let’s just say we had very different experiences. 😂 Hot. Sunny. Loud. Busy. Constant movement. My nervous system was working overtime. 😂 One of the things I’ve learned as both a neurodivergent mom and the mom of two autistic kids is that both experiences can exist at the same time. My child can be completely regulated… …while I’m doing everything I can to stay regulated myself. And because I also know how quickly that can change, having somewhere to step away and regulate mattered just as much as the inflatables themselves. We purchased VIP tickets because extra shade, space to decompress, and fewer crowds gave us something every neurodivergent family needs: space to regulate. So my son could keep doing what he loves most. Running. Jumping. Bouncing. Being completely, unapologetically himself. I don’t look for places that are perfect. I look for places that make it easier for everyone in our family to thrive, or at least handle the day. Sometimes the smallest details aren’t just “nice to have.” They’re the reason a family can say yes to the experience in the first place. Did I leave hot, sweaty, and completely overstimulated? Absolutely. 😂 Would I do it all again just to watch that smile? Without hesitation. 🩵 If you’re raising a high-energy child who loves to run, jump, bounce, climb, and move their body… would they be in heaven here, or would your nervous system need a nap afterward too? 😂 Follow @dreamjartravels for honest autism parenting, neurodivergent family travel, and real-life attractions that help families spend less time worrying… and more time making memories together. ✈️ #familytravels #neurodivergentfamily #adhdmom #inclusivetravel