Recently I was making a trip from Washington, D.C. to Seattle with a stop in Minneapolis St. Paul. Upon joining the group of people ready to board the flight, a boy came barreling through, elbowing in motion, words “EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME!” gloriously expelling from his 10 year old mouth.

My immediate thought… “Hope you’re not in my row, kid”. Typical thought of most, I’d say. So I stepped to the side, somewhat begrudgingly, and found that once boarded, the boy and his mother were indeed, my row-mates. Again, some thoughts went through my head as I waited for mom to get herself and her son established in their seats. As I stepped out of the way of other boarding passengers, I was trying to think positive thoughts, like maybe the boy would stay in his seat the whole time, quietly watching his movies and such.

When I was finally able to get into my chosen aisle seat, the boy started making noises and getting somewhat aggressive with his TV screen and headset, mom responding in a way I found to be antagonist to her son, which I found to be greatly annoying. So then I thought “who’s going to be worse, the boy or the mom?”

A few more minutes of the unsettled movements and sounds, when mom turned to me and said, “Please don’t mind my son. He’s autistic.”

“I’m not worried about it,” I responded. Her response was of relief, but… that didn’t make HER less annoying! Ha! The boy was fine!