Camp Autism here we come

We’ve just had a fabulous HAGS meeting. A lovely lady from Camp Autism Victoria came out to discuss with us the camps that she coordinates for the families of kids with autism. She’s going to try and organise one for the HAGS families in January for a few days. I’m always humbled by people like Annette and Mary who have made it their mission to make life easier for people in the same situation as them. It’s a huge undertaking to try and coordinate groups of people for a weekend or week away break. I can imagine not all are easy to deal with and my personal experience has been that sometimes you get the parents who basically think that the world owes them because they have a special needs child. You have to tread very carefully with these parents as they know their rights and you ‘get’ that but there is a time and a place for confrontation and this isn’t when dealing with volunteer organisations. Annette doesn’t seem to have had any issues so far. Luckily with our HAGS mums we respect each other and don’t push the boundaries. After all we are all in the same boat.

We’re tentatively trying for the end of the summer holidays, a time when parents find that their patience has often worn thin! Now to try to gets the Dads to agree.

We’ve had a good weekend. We bought a new bunny rabbit for Bridie yesterday, a little boy named Sam. I find Bridie difficult to bribe as she’s not a big dvd watcher, nor much of a computer girl. We had the prep guinea pigs home for the weekend and Bridie spent most of it wanting to carry them around. This was great as I could use this to my advantage with things like meals, getting dressed and bathtime. I talked to the other kids about the fact that it would just be for Bridie and be her responsibility and they were fine about it. It was suggested to get a boy as they don’t have as many hormones as girls, therefore not as likely to be horrible as they get older! Beth thinks he’s lovely too but Bridie is the one who says who can hold him and for how long.

Talking to a friend last week made me realise that we don’t actually have many chores in our house. This is one of the reasons that I wanted to get Sam, to show some responsibilities. Bridie’s is now Sam and Beth and Bill share the dog and the cat. They also have to pick up 10 things in the morning and 10 things at night, and make their beds. I’m sure I will think of some other things as the week goes on! I figure I can give them pocket money at the end of each day to make it more ‘real’ as Beth has absolutely no concept of money. She seems to be rising to the challenge though of course with me supervising all the time.

We’ve got swimming this afternoon so let’s see how Beth goes this week. I’ve been so happy with her responses with teachers and therapists lately. Last weeks swimming was terrific so hopefully today will follow suit. Though often she seems to finally ‘get’ something, then not do it again for weeks. Fingers crossed!

About Sarah

Mother of an autistic child wanting to write about my personal experiences
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