A chilly day

Life goes on regardless of how you feel about the progress. Dark, cloudy, cold days come after beautiful sunny ones. Adolescence hits the eleven year old and all traces of cute are pushed aside. Chilly after refusing a jacket, he won't turn back and admit he can't take the cold. Learning to parent an adolescent male with very limited expressive language abilities, I don't push the issue after my first request is rebuffed with a scream. We talk about yelling at people and feelings. Time for a walk. A friendly stranger asks if he's cold. My response, rather than explaining, is to ask him if he wants to go home and get a coat. The "no no no" answer settles it for me and the stranger.