Tactile tactics

Is it wrong that most parents of kids on the Spectrum get more fun out of the tactile goodies that the kids do?
Sure, the kids get tactile therapy from them but, mostly, all the while screaming their lungs out in protest at 'this revolting thing invading my personal space'.
Or that's what I reckon they'd say if they could use their words.

No, parents get transported back to their own childhood when we make and play with the gloop or slime or shaving cream or play doh or soap bubbles or squishy foam balls, etc.
Cos it's natural to model poking at the stuff for your kids, to get them to play with it - monkey see, monkey do - and suddenly some of us find more reasons to poke and play with the stuff...cos there's a tactile and emotional release for us, too.
The old joke "my shrink costs $100 per hour but bubble wrap is only $2 per metre" is true!
How many times have you heard/seen people jokingly fighting over the bubble wrap to pop?

It's a stress reliever the same as the gloop, slime, shaving cream, etc, helping to provide a soothing calm albeit only momentarily but shit! sometimes it was enough to get us through another session at early intervention or speech therapy.
Some fall back on smoking, drinking, binging on chocolate or gambling while others find just running soap slime through our fingers to be strangely soothing and enough to recharge the batteries.
All the while our kids are screaming at the tactile invasion.