We’re having lovely quiet holidays. We bought a second hand spa a couple of months ago and had it installed properly last weekend so we’ve been in it every day since. Our backyard isn’t very big and we had wanted a pool. Then looking back over lots of photos of Dad with the kids I thought a spa would be easier to fit and a nice tribute to Dad. We’ve got a lovely one, here’s a photo of the kids and I on the first day. 
Beth’s tablet finally broke for good and as it happens so did mine and Bridie’s so we had a disaster with no tablet for Beth for the week. It’s actually been quite nice. Paul went to Sydney from Wednesday until Friday and I had our food all ready and a cruisy few days. Beth played on the computer, we went in the spa, we played on the wii which we hadn’t done for ages. I bought Bill a Mario Kart game for Christmas and we’ve rediscovered all our old games, playing tennis and billiards against each other and racing around the track as Mario. It’s still electronic but it’s one that we can all play together and it was good fun. I had hoped that no tablet would mean more communication from Beth but no, she appears even deafer than she has before, totally ignoring me at times. I was thinking that there may be something wrong with her hearing but then remembered that she’s nearly 16 so that could be all it is!
We had visits to relatives which were lovely, pizza with the kids cousins one night, a couple of plays and sleepovers, slow paced and casual holidays, just how I like them.
I’m a bit peeved, I got a form from Centrelink this week, I have to get a medical certificate filled in to continue receiving a carers allowance for Beth. It’s $110 a fortnight. Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the extra money, I just think it’s ridiculous that because she is turning 16 we have to confirm that she still has autism. How lovely it would be if she grew out of it like she did her asthma. I get it with some kids. My friend’s son is so good now that he doesn’t even want people to know he has an aspergers diagnosis and is doing really well at school. And absolutely there has been improvements. But you’d think that in this day and age of technology that somewhere a box would be ticked to show the severity and dependency of their autism. I felt like crap because some of the questions were things like ‘does your child have a shortened life span’ or ‘do they use incontinence aides’ or ‘are there extended hospital visits.’ Just because she’s not disabled to that extent doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have special needs! Again I felt like I was making her out to be a vegetable. The criteria said that helping included prompting your child to do things. So it ended up with me saying that yes she needs help most of the time with self care, toileting, eating, even moving from one room to another. It just makes her sound so helpless. Yes she is in many ways but it shits me that I have to put it on the form if I want the assistance. A friend has told me that she lost hers after her son turned 16, and he’s at Beth’s school which is a special school. He’s even been in special education since he was 4, I can’t believe she doesn’t receive it anymore! We haven’t received the forms yet to fill in for Beth’s pension either, that one should be fun!
The kids are now getting pocket money and Beth is most pissed off that she now has to unpack the dishwasher every third day. She argues that it’s not her turn, not yet I’ll do it later, no she flat out just doesn’t want to do it. Yesterday it was her turn so I gave her the option of doing it before or after her shower, she chose after. She came out with a towel wrapped around her and I said ‘don’t forget, you need to do the dishwasher in a minute’ to which she replied ‘What, you want me to do it naked?!’ Smart arse!
