Carter at Home Depot

Carter loves going to Home Depot. I think I have shared this before. We take him there as a reward because this is what he chooses over anything else. He loves looking at the appliances. It used to be just the washing machines and dryers and now it’s the refrigerators and the dishwashers too. I do believe he will be an inventor or an engineer someday. He likes to look at the dishwashers and will ask me why some of them aren’t in the display very good. I tell him I guess because they aren’t screwed in there. I don’t know anything about this kind of stuff? Carter says he wants to work there so he can make sure the dishwashers are screwed in right so they won’t come out when people try to open them. 😆

The people that work there have seen us a lot. One lady at the cash register calls him “Mr. Appliance Guy,” every time she sees him. She told me one day that she loves how he studies everything, and she said he will probably invent the next greatest appliance one day. I told her I have said the exact same thing! Most of the employees just smile when they see him. One guy will always ask him if he ever finds an elephant in the dryer. Of course Carter is not much for socializing. He’s just busy checking everything out. One guy that works in appliances named Russ always speaks to us when he sees us. Jeremy has even explained to him before that Carter has autism and that he just enjoys coming in there to look at everything and he picks that as a reward over anything else we offer him. Russ has told us that Carter is welcome anytime. (We do go in there to buy stuff a lot too though 😂).

I took Carter in there on Thursday this past week, and I was letting him do his thing. Russ came up and gave Carter his very own Home Depot apron and something for him to take home to build. This touched my heart so much and made Carter’s day.

I’m amazed at the kindness of other people. These are the aprons they probably hand out at their Saturday workshops for kids but still this act of kindness meant so much to us. I’m trying to think of something special to do for Russ and really everyone at Home Depot because they are so accepting of my child and make him feel welcome when he’s there.

The next day after school, Carter got in the car and put on his Home Depot apron and said “I made a 100 on my AR test. Let’s go to Home Depot!” (It was Friday and I usually take him on Fridays anyway if he’s had a good week at school) but I had to take him after this.

He asked me when we left the store “how old do I have to be to start working at Home Depot?” I told him at least 16 years old. He said “Mama I’m going to make Home Depot a better place.” I know that he will because of the joy that he brings.

He has mentioned over the last several months that he wants to be a doctor, a teacher like Mrs. Amado, and now work at Home Depot. It doesn’t matter to us what he chooses to do because we will be so proud of him no matter what. 😊