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How My Autism Life Is Like The Movie “Groundhog Day”

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(originally written & published on June 23, 2014)

I’ve said many times before that raising Kyle is often like living the movie Groundhog Day…that Bill Murray comedy classic where he relives the exact same day over & over & over.  

I say that mainly because it sometimes feels like we’ve been kinda raising a toddler for 10+ years now. 

Here’s a perfect concrete example of what I mean.  See if you feel the Groundhog Day connection…
Mon 8:37pm — Kyle is watching this old HBO special called Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales  that we TiVo’d way back in 2004 when he was actually a wee toddler. 
It’s got animated versions of some classic books interspersed with interviews with kids taking about their dreams. 

The wife and I know every line of it by heart and can even imitate most of the voices and facial expressions of the kids being interviewed. 
We should know it by heart. It’s been helping Kyle fall asleep for basically his entire life. 

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I’d say he watches it at least 4 times a week which means we’ve seen it probably over 2000 times over the years. 
And the wife and I are obsessed with trying to find out what these kids are up to today. 
That’s my “Groundhog Day” moment of the day…
It dawned on us a few months back that even though our king is still kinda like a toddler…most of the kids in this video (which was produced in 2000) are probably in college right now. 
Now that right there is a real mind screw, ya know?
Y’all got any “Groundhog Day” examples in your autism households? Or is it only my mind that goes there?
🙂

That’s it.  The end.  I’ll leave you with the trailer of the movie Groundhog Day.  I need to see this movie again soon.  It’s one of the classics…

THE END…

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Frank Campagna

I’m a 48 year old neurotypical dad with a 14 year old son with severe, non-verbal autism & epilepsy. I created this blog to rant about autism & epilepsy while celebrating my son who I affectionately call “the king” :-).

View Comments

  • Describing life with Autistic child similarly to Ground Hogs Day is perfect. It does seem all too comparable when day in and day out the same events occur. Our son Henry(almost 7) has his routines that would drive anyone nuts. Specifically pause, play, rewind, and fast forwarding through the same scenes of is favorite movies over and over and over. aaagh!
    I must tell you, your posts in their absolute humility are my inspiration on some of the worst days with Autism to not give up. Thank you. :)

    • I was wondering if my daughter was the only one to do the play/rewind/fast forward thing! She learned how to operate the VCR, then the DVD remote quickly. Her precision in astounding. (She can pick the most minute sound and play/rewind it to the nanosecond.)
      We're still listening to the same movies since Jude was a toddler : Disney movies up to, but not including, The Little Mermaid, some Don Bluth animated films, and Peter Gabriel's Secret World Tour.
      My oldest and I can figure out which movie she's currently stimming on within the first 30 seconds. I know the dialogue and speech of just about every movie she's got. We spend a lot of time randomly quoting or finishing a cut off quote because ... well, we don't have much by way of entertainment around here.

      Groundhog Day it up rather nicely.

    • For us it's "Cars' - as for the rewinding to the nanosecond, my husband thinks she would be an awesome DJ if it weren't for the loud music and the people

  • Great example! Our house is much the same. It's Yo Gabba Gabba, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Fresh Beat Band. Our DVR bit the dust last fall and our son about lost his mind until they were all available to him again. Luckily, Amazon Prime has them all and he can watch on his IPad and we don't have to watch them too much anymore.

  • max and ruby, pepa pig and yo gabba gabba at our house. barely have any room on the dvr for my shows lol I thought it was weird that I know most of the shows lines by heart but guess I'm not alone

  • I love this! My son is 12 and doesn't love television much. But he does love music. We just found an old iPod Touch and loaded some of his favorites on it. Since 5 AM today (it's now 9:15) I have heard "Tunnel of Love" (Bruce Springsteen) and "Immigrant Song" (Led Zeppelin) no less than 15 times. It's like when Bill Murray is awakened daily by "I Got You, Babe" in the movie!

  • Really perfect analogy! Because in the movie, the Bill Murray character starts to expand within the confines of the "same day," and grows wise within the the limited frame of his repeated day. Just like you guys have done. Brilliant.

  • Our 4 year old son is pretty much the same - DJ on the iPad. He can buzz through YouTube like nobody's business, at times watching entire episodes and at other times, pause/rewind/repeat. I've watched in fascination to try and see if there is some sort of pattern but if so, it's beyond my understanding. Still, he's managed to teach himself his alphabet (upper/lower case), counting up into the sixties and countless songs. He knows his planets, a huge variety of animals and I don't know what else so I'm not always sure what to make of it.

  • My son DVRs every single Wipeout and American Ninja Warrior... And watches them tirelessly.. Those are not so bad, but the Fred movies (the annoying "kid" from Nickleodeon) are enough to have me begging someone to shoot me in the face... Groundhog Day, for sure!!!

  • We live in ground hog day too. Ike just turned 14 last weekend, he still watches the same favourites he's been watching since he was 3, round and round and round and.....! I got my first response laugh for a few days from him yesterday when I absent mindedly mimicked the 10sec real he was repeating and repeating, over and over. He thought that was kinda neat. Lol. Mandy from n.z

  • i totally understand we live same day everyday also.out kiddo usually doesnt go to school because he wakes up almost every night usually between 2-5.at which point he terrorizes us with tantrums and throwing things and slamming things until he falls asleep from all the activity.

    • I'm so glad I am not the only one. My three yr old was in head start which he loved until he decided it would be fun to get up EVERY night at 3am on the nose to stem for three to four hours. Same thing every night wakes up, runs around the island in the kitchen, asks for chocolate milk and watches Paw Patrol on dvr. same thing night after night. My husband and I take turns he has the night shift and I have the day shift. I don't think we have slept at the same time in well over three months. WHEN DOES THIS BAD MOVIE END LOL J/K

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