Autism West Midlands Fun Day

A couple of weeks ago, we attended our first family fun day event, run by Autism West Midlands. They run lots of different events and workshops all over the West Midlands, including pampering sessions, information days and courses. This particular one appealed to me because we were able to attend as a family, and it was not far from where we live.

I thought I'd write about it so that anyone considering attending one would have an idea what to expect.

The event was held at a large community venue that used to be a comprehensive school. I didn't feel that it was the best venue for the event, as the building itself was quite claustrophobic, with lots of narrow corridors, making it quite hard for us to find out where the event was being held! Luckily, there were some handy signposts and plenty of lovely, friendly staff on hand to help us.

The event was held on a Saturday morning, which posed a problem for some families, including ours. A lot of kids attend Saturday morning clubs, so quite a few people were turning up at about midday and missed some of the activities like the arts and crafts class, fire safety workshop and pony rides.

When we arrived, my son made a beeline for the fantastic disco bouncers; small bouncy castles which were dark inside and had disco lights and loud music. All of the kids seemed to love them and got very excited. It was lovely to see a group of kids who would normally have social issues, playing together and having fun without judgement.

We went inside to check out the indoor activities. The arts and crafts table still had a few bits and bobs left on it, so my daughter sat down and started paining some cards. My son had his face painted my an amazing face painter, who complied with his slightly unusual request to be Bowser, the villain from the Super Mario series. She did a fantastic job and my son spent the rest of the day channeling his "inner Bowser" and roaring at everyone.

We then went into another room to watch a pantomime, but unfortunately my son had trouble sitting still and didn't manage to watch the whole performance. I liked the way that the performance was relaxed, though, and the actors didn't seem to be fazed by the kids in the audience shouting out and moving around.

The staff were all fantastic and it was nice to go to a place where nobody is giving you funny looks or looking at you in a judgemental way. This was a place that we could truly relax and be ourselves, knowing that others understood us completely. It was such a nice feeling.

I'm truly grateful for organisations like AWM that put on events like these for families affected by autism. We really do appreciate it.