Josiah broke another chair the other day. I can’t even begin to count the number of chairs he has destroyed. When we moved into this house almost 7 years ago, we bought a brand new Kitchen table with 8 chairs. For our large family, it was perfect.

The table was taller than typical Kitchen tables. It requires bar stool sized chairs. When we were looking for a house, one of the most important things we were searching for was an eating area large enough to accommodate everyone comfortably. We were thrilled when we found this house and I absolutely loved the table and chairs we had purchased.

I can’t remember exactly how long it took for Josiah to realize wooden bar stool sized chairs make a great sound when they crash to the ground. I don’t think it was very long. I can’t remember exactly how long it took for Josiah to realize repeatedly knocking the chairs over was fun. But he did.

Wood crashing against ceramic tile is not a good thing. So, before long, when the chairs were still very new, one by one they began to break. Often, a chair or two would end up in the garage, awaiting repair. Rick did his best to salvage what he could of the chairs that endured minimal damage. We’d pull a stool from the counter directly behind the table and use that instead.

We tried ignoring Josiah’s chair crashing behavior. We tried putting Josiah in time out for his chair crashing behavior. Mostly, we tried ‘catching’ him seconds before he attempted to crash a chair to the floor, in hopes of redirecting his behavior.

We contacted the furniture store from which we had purchased the table and chairs. We explained the situation. “We have a child with Autism who has been destroying our chairs,” we said. They sent someone out to repair them. Eventually, they replaced the chairs. We were amazed. What a generous gesture and certainly not one we expected. We got new chairs. They sounded great crashing to the ground as well. In time, Josiah destroyed those too.

When we were down to very few chairs, we shopped for new ones. This time we opted for padded seats and padded backs. Maybe these would be less exciting for Josiah to hurl to the floor. At the very least, they were padded and would not splinter as readily as the solid wood ones had. We were right. They were better. For a while anyway. It took a little longer, but eventually the padded ones died also. When we were down to a minimum number of chairs, I had another plan.

Instead of more chairs, we bought a padded bench for one side of the table. It seats 3. Josiah can not see it above the table, so he doesn’t think to throw it down. If he did, it would be too heavy and cumbersome for him to do anything with.

It’s been great. Our table for 8, until recently had a bench on one side and 3 individual chairs on the other 3 sides, so we are able to comfortably seat 6. With the girls away at college, it’s been fine. In the past week, Josiah has broken 2 more chairs. We can’t seat the entire family at one side of the table. That would just be silly, and very crowded. So, yesterday, Rick and I looked around for new chairs.

We went to an outlet store with hundreds of chairs to choose from. We thought about the different options available and thought about the pros and cons of many of them. I actually sat on a few chairs and bounced hard. Whatever chair we chose had to be Josiah-strong.

We joked about how Josiah should get a job as a furniture durability tester. If pieces withstand him bouncing on them, climbing on and over them and hurling them to the ground, they would be sturdy enough for most every consumer. We left the store, without a chair. We have another new plan.

This is an aside, but this is one of the things I love about having a precious child like Josiah. He always keeps us thinking. How many people do you know that have to constantly be thinking of new, creative ways to just live ordinary, every day life?  We are always thinking. The boy definitely keeps us on our toes and we have to constantly be searching out new and better plans to make life for him safe and life for us sane.

So, here’s the new plan. Rick is going to ask a friend to cut down the legs of our very tall Kitchen table. It will soon (hopefully) become a normal sized kitchen table. We will get normal sized kitchen chairs and/or cut down the legs of the remaining tall chairs that are currently, unbroken. Josiah may still like to bounce hard on them though. He may still want to hurl the shorter chairs to the ground. So, for him, we need a brand new, very different chair.

I ordered it on-line yesterday. I got an email message this morning confirming it has shipped. I can hardly wait til it gets here and we assemble it. I can hardly wait til Josiah tries it out.

I pray he likes it. No, I pray he LOVES it. I pray he falls so madly in love with his new chair he does not care about what sound it might make crashing to the hard, ceramic tile floor. I pray the thought of throwing it never even enters his little mind. I pray it’s too awkward for him to pick up to throw or knock down.

And if the boy wants to bounce on his new chair, we will encourage it.