Autistic Teddy Bear Mum Bullied at the Opera

Thank you the Royal Opera House staff. For helping my Autistic mummy!

Mummy had had a weird sort of panic attack during Peter Grimes. She might have even passed out for a short while.

Arriving with only 5 minutes until curtain up, Mummy was already panicky. Wearing her mask up in the gods was bad enough. Having a prejudging twit assume that she would lean me over the balcony during the performance didn’t help!
Taking advantage of the privilege of his straight-laced demeanour and likely assuming he’d be believed over a woman with a talking teddy bear, the man said that he would inform the staff if Mummy got me in the way.
This would have been fair enough had she done – Of course, she had no more intention of getting me, or herself, in the way than he had!

I think the man saw Mummy as a cheeky child answering back when she calmly replied that if he wants to miss the performance by complaining, then that is up to him.
I’m at a loss to understand why an adult having a teddy bear would mean that they would get the teddy bear or their arms in the way at a theatre!
Many humans feel threatened by accepting people who are a little ‘different’ as equal adults, and feel more secure to imagine them lower!

The lights dimmed, the performance was imminent… this man and his acquaintance decided to have a conversation! In revenge for him prejudging her, Mummy shushed them. One of them told her to shut up!
You know type, insecure because they want to be a higher social-class. They feel comforted by asserting their self-assumed authority on people they perceive as easy to feel superior to! The type that are either trying to show they are better than others, or fawning on those they think are superior. They think to do so will make them appear upper-class. However, actual U people tend to have more class than to behave as this man did.
You know when you human creatures are trying not to cough during a performance? Well, this happened to Mummy. Trying to suppress coughing took her into panic mode. In the environmental and social heat of the situation, I think she fainted. She remembers coming back to awareness and feeling disorientated, and not sure where she was.

Staff got Mummy’s attention and asked with the thumbs-up gesture if she was okay. Mummy gave the thumbs-up back. This is good because often when someone has a panic attack or epileptic seizure (which it may have been assumed to be) an ambulance is called. It’s not necessary in many cases. Calmly asking by gesture is a good no-fuss way to deal with it.
At the interval, two staff members were there to see that Mummy was okay. One took us down to a spacious box for the remainder of the performance.

Mummy further panicked in the box when she started coughing and was worried that it would disturb the couple there. She moved towards the door to exit into the corridor, but in panic, was unable to open it. Controlling her breathing, she sipped some water and regained composure before quietly going back to the seat.

The couple in the box was very lovely and were probably more of the social class that the insecure man up in the cheap seats really wanted to be!

Because Mummy is eccentric in a way that people are snobby about or bully her over, she was worried that she wouldn’t be listened to when she saw the man speaking with the staff at the interval. Thankfully, The Royal Opera House is more professional than to take one side of a story

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