After all my moaning and bitching I’ve actually found that so far I’ve enjoyed these school holidays. Mind you Bridie has been having lots of playdates so she’s either been behaving cos she’s looking forward to them or busy having them. Still, even when we are at home together I think the slackness about getting up and ready has been good for all of us. We’re still usually ready by about 9 anyway but it’s been more casual and I haven’t had to make lunches and find school things.
We went and had a play at my friend Kerrie’s house on Monday. She has a son Bridies age and another son who’s four. Beth basically just watched dvds and read books which was fine. She used her manners nicely and appropriately and (or maybe it’s wishful thinking) I really think she’s using better spontaneous eye contact. The bugger did do one thing that I find sooooo frustrating at home but still so typically autistic. She was watching a dvd and each time Kerrie and I would start to talk we’d hear it go up again. I swear I think it was at least 20 or 30 times. In the end Kerrie had the remote and kept turning it back down to Beth’s annoyance. The thing is that she does turn it down. Then she just turns it back up again. In her mind she’s done what she’s been told. ‘But Mum I did turn it down’ she pleads as she’s blatantly turning it back up again.
Instructions for our kids need to be so specific. ‘Sit down’ just wont do. They sit down then pop back up again. Even ‘sit down and stay there’ isn’t good enough. How long do we stay for? If we make it too specific it causes stress as it may seem like an endless task.
I often think to myself how difficult the sex education thing will be. If and when Beth decides to have sex (much as I’d like her to remain a virgin ’til she’s married a nice boy) the rules have to be so specific. How to put this to an autistic person. You can’t say “when you fall in love” as you can fall in love in an instant. You can’t say “If you’re boyfriend and girlfriend” as that could be straight away too. I almost feel like at the time I’ll have to write a manual. “When you’ve been dating for 1 week it’s ok to kiss, 6 months he’s allowed to touch your top half” so on and so on. I don’t think a social story about the powerpuff girls losing their virginity will cut it! I know I’ve got many years yet but sometimes my mind wanders, it comes about so quickly. Hopefully she’ll marry a nice aspie boy who thinks that a night of romance is sitting side by side watching a movie!
We’ve got Nerida in the morning again followed by Sensational Kids in the afternoon. On Friday we’re off to the zoo to check out the new baby elephant. Bill of course thinks it should be called – Bill! Then the first week of holidays will be over. And I’m still relatively sane. Well, sort of!
