I've never seen anything, how did you know?

Since we "came out" about Liam's TS, one of the most common things I hear from friends and family are things along the lines of "I've never seen anything, how did you know?". I'm always a little bit astounded as I've seen several tics a day (even on his best days) since he was in Kindergarten or first grade. Part of it is, of course, that I'm more tuned in to my kid than other people would be, so unless it's a really blatant tic, other people don't notice- unless they're aware of tic disorders and TS. I will never forget one of the first people that I told that we were going through the diagnosis process saying to me "oh, really? You don't have a diagnosis, I assumed you did". Her son has OCD and a tic disorder. I kind of liken it to buying a new car. You don't notice them on the road at all, then you buy one, and suddenly they're everywhere.

I'm still always a little bit surprised when close family and friends are taken by surprise by Liam's tics. I tell them what it's like, but like with anything else, I guess you can't really know until you live it. On Thanksgiving, the kids were all in the living room with my stepdad and my best friend's daughter playing cards. Me and my mom and my best friend were sitting at the dining room table still enjoying our dessert and tea. Liam had his squealing tic. Then it came again. My friend said "what the hell was that?". She thought my youngest was screaming. I told her and my mom "Oh, that's Liam's tic". They both looked so surprised, because I don't think they'd ever seen Liam have a bad tic before. My mom was getting ready to take Liam to her house for a few days, and suddenly, I think, the severity of Liam's TS made her nervous for the first time. I don't really worry anymore about what people will think when we're in public. Liam and I are both pretty good at explaining TS in a very concise way. My mom started asking if it would be ok to take him to this place or that. I told her he was very able to explain to people what TS is, and he'd done it several times. I told him as they were leaving that grandma would like to bring him to these places and if he had a tic and thought that it made people uncomfortable, he could explain to them that he had TS.
I guess like every mom with a kid with TS this age, I hope that he's one of the ones who essentially grows out of it. But if he's going to have to live with it, my hope is that he remains comfortable and confident enough in his own skin to be open with the people he loves about what he's going through and doesn't try to hold back in front of them.