0 comment Sunday, August 10, 2014 | admin
Sprog came back from camping VERY dirty and considerably scratched and bruised. We had a relatively pleasant day as I showed him a few new things I purchased to keep him entertained this summer; a bubble gun with a waterpistol inbuilt to shoot at the bubbles (I'm not a fan of guns but good hand/eye coordination), and some more modelling clay for him. These things managed to keep his attention for a bit, so that was good. However he got angry with me last night that I wouldn't let him go outside (it was bedtime, he hasn't slept in a real bed in a week) and he kicked me in the knee - hard enough that I'm limping today. Right back to normal, then.
Sadly this is a fact of life when dealing with an autistic child - the physical violence toward me can be pretty awful, and as he gets older, he gets stronger. I've had this conversation with the school and the social worker and of course they have absolutely no clue what to do either, except suggest courses which I cannot possibly attend as they're too far away and I have no childcare coverage. Contrary to what the AS community would have us believe, autistic children do have the potential to be very nasty as they get older if their rages aren't dealt with when younger - and even then I worry about the teen years and all the raging hormones. Unfortunately the main battle I tend to have is that the AS community believes that all of society is wrong but themselves, and they are fully within their rights to demand their way over anyone else's...which tends to be the issue when dealing with Sprog vs. Ex. I know someone whose daughter begged for help for years, and only now has received the diagnosis of Aspergers and Schitzophrenia - he's now so big he's put her in hospital once - she's having him placed in a home and it breaks her heart, but she saw it coming and tried to get some aid. But the aid just isn't there...especially when the AS community refuses to acknowledge the very real problem of reacting nastily to things they don't agree with or doesn't fit into their scheme of life.
However the one perk is that sprog now realises (even if it's later) that he's done something wrong, and he will come and apologise to me and admit what he did was wrong, and that's something I am very grateful for and thank him for the apology. So we're getting there, slowly but surely.
In the meantime, it's painmeds and my cane for the morning until I can move a bit more freely.
************
The plan for today is to wait for various deliveries I have coming; sewing patterns and the sand box. Then I want to make blueberry muffins and perhaps a fruit crumble for our evening tea (which sprog won't eat, of course, but I have some nectarines and raspberries I want to cook up). I have a bit of energy today so I want to do some cooking for the week. I made a batch of bean soup yesterday which I managed to freeze half. Today I'll teach sprog how to make some old-school spagbol.
The summer I'm doing a lot of teaching-without-teaching. Sprog will start Year 2 in September; I can't even believe I just typed that. He's showing an interest in doing things as well - he wants to be helpful, and that requires me to be able to deal with a given value of helpful. I like a clean house, but I'm not house-proud to the point I can't stand a bit of mess, which is useful! In any event, I am showing him how to wash his clothes and how to hang them, how to cook his popcorn, how to cut vegetables and do some basic cooking. I know he does this at school as well, but enforcing this at home with fun things to cook that he enjoys helps as well. I'm hoping to extend this to a bit of basic sewing - and have been showing sprog how to mend his own clothes - it was something I found rather unbelievable when I first met Ex in that he knew how to repair clothing and did so readily; his mum was a good teacher. I hope to manage to get sproggo doing the same. Cleaning his room is a bit more challenging, but I think that's pretty much true of any child alive.
So roll on summer and we'll see how we manage.
Sadly this is a fact of life when dealing with an autistic child - the physical violence toward me can be pretty awful, and as he gets older, he gets stronger. I've had this conversation with the school and the social worker and of course they have absolutely no clue what to do either, except suggest courses which I cannot possibly attend as they're too far away and I have no childcare coverage. Contrary to what the AS community would have us believe, autistic children do have the potential to be very nasty as they get older if their rages aren't dealt with when younger - and even then I worry about the teen years and all the raging hormones. Unfortunately the main battle I tend to have is that the AS community believes that all of society is wrong but themselves, and they are fully within their rights to demand their way over anyone else's...which tends to be the issue when dealing with Sprog vs. Ex. I know someone whose daughter begged for help for years, and only now has received the diagnosis of Aspergers and Schitzophrenia - he's now so big he's put her in hospital once - she's having him placed in a home and it breaks her heart, but she saw it coming and tried to get some aid. But the aid just isn't there...especially when the AS community refuses to acknowledge the very real problem of reacting nastily to things they don't agree with or doesn't fit into their scheme of life.
However the one perk is that sprog now realises (even if it's later) that he's done something wrong, and he will come and apologise to me and admit what he did was wrong, and that's something I am very grateful for and thank him for the apology. So we're getting there, slowly but surely.
In the meantime, it's painmeds and my cane for the morning until I can move a bit more freely.
************
The plan for today is to wait for various deliveries I have coming; sewing patterns and the sand box. Then I want to make blueberry muffins and perhaps a fruit crumble for our evening tea (which sprog won't eat, of course, but I have some nectarines and raspberries I want to cook up). I have a bit of energy today so I want to do some cooking for the week. I made a batch of bean soup yesterday which I managed to freeze half. Today I'll teach sprog how to make some old-school spagbol.
The summer I'm doing a lot of teaching-without-teaching. Sprog will start Year 2 in September; I can't even believe I just typed that. He's showing an interest in doing things as well - he wants to be helpful, and that requires me to be able to deal with a given value of helpful. I like a clean house, but I'm not house-proud to the point I can't stand a bit of mess, which is useful! In any event, I am showing him how to wash his clothes and how to hang them, how to cook his popcorn, how to cut vegetables and do some basic cooking. I know he does this at school as well, but enforcing this at home with fun things to cook that he enjoys helps as well. I'm hoping to extend this to a bit of basic sewing - and have been showing sprog how to mend his own clothes - it was something I found rather unbelievable when I first met Ex in that he knew how to repair clothing and did so readily; his mum was a good teacher. I hope to manage to get sproggo doing the same. Cleaning his room is a bit more challenging, but I think that's pretty much true of any child alive.
So roll on summer and we'll see how we manage.
Labels: Sprog