Dance Therapy - Highly Recommended

There's nothing like a good night out on the razzle to blow the cobwebs from a responsible parent. I don't go out drinking very much these days at all - I prefer cinema and dinner since I'm generally an embarrassment on the dancefloor.

However, it was a friend's 45th birthday last night and she had in turn been invited to another friend's 50th. So for once I wasn't the oldest person on the dancefloor. Besides, this was a trendy bar rather than a nightclub. This meant that I could chat plus throw in a bit of a dance at the same time whilst sipping my drink.So whereas you may have called it 'dancing' as I appeared to be bobbing about a bit, technically it wasn't. There are no dance competitions that I know of that involve balancing your moves with a drink in your hand, so the pressure was off. And if none of that makes sense, it's probably because I had one June Bug too many and am still recovering.

Partly because I couldn't hear myself speak, I didn't mention to one person all night what I did for a living or that my twins had autism. Or even, come to think of it, that I had twins. It was enough just chatting about music, making stupid gags and alerting everyone to the police cars that were lining up outside ready to make arrests at the downstairs bar (we were in the upstairs function room so got a good view of proceedings).

Last night was a blast and provided me with a total shift of focus. Shifting your focus is something that author and parent Geraldine Hills told me was central to her 'survival' techniques and I'll be featuring it in an interview that I did with her for Issue 16 of AuKids. They say that a change is as good as a rest and that's never more true than when you've made a change inside your head itself, swapping your every day concerns with a bit of fun and frivolity. That's as good as a total break.

Sometimes it's not respite we need from our kids, but from ourselves. Much as I'm fascinated by autism, much as I want to do the best for the boys, much as I live and breath the condition every day of my life...sometimes I bore even myself with it.

Last night I realised that I am still a person worth getting to know even without the autism banner to wave. A person has merits with or without anyone's rights to champion and it's easy to lose sight of yourself in the fight to become the best parent you can be.

I am just making a note though, that hangovers and kids don't mix.