This was a stress that I didn't want or need. The situation would be comical if it weren't so sad. He is so naive, and lacks so much common sense. I keep wondering how he had a 4.0 through out high school. Did they give him the grades because he was a football player? We've all been 21 and made mistakes...but this boy takes the cake! I mean you spend your whole life raising him, trying to give him the best possible environment, the best schools, a full-time mother, a hard working, ethical, honest father. Yet makes choices like he was raised by village idiots! I hoped that the majority of our parenting was done -but it never ends unless you cut it short. We have stop helping him so that he can bite his nose to spite his face, and then pray that it hurts bad enough to teach him some difficult life lessons.
So I'm at the climax of my yoga class in down dog, hopefully the last one before savasana (meditation where you clear your mind and take in all of the poses that you've just completed). The door opens and somehow I know. "Is there a Karen W- in this class? Her husband is on the phone -he says it's an emergency." Shit! Did one of the kids get hurt? I hope it's not anything serious. I get up from down dog and answer the phone. My friends are all concerned when I return for my mat and blanket. "Is there anything we can do?" I'm touched by this. Of course the answer is, "No -I'll be fine."
I hall ass over to the pool to pick up my children and their friends who have been kicked out of the facility because Kendal was using curse words at a couple of young ladies. Wonderful. Isn't my life just freakin wonderful? When I arrive which is literally five minutes later. The boys run towards the car screaming and upset that they were all kicked out when they didn't do anything. Of course Kendal claims it wasn't his fault. The girls dropped the F-bomb on him first.
I verify the story with the head life-guard. It's true the girls did curse at him first, but he over reacted and his volume was turned on loudspeaker. I can only imagine the whole scene as other parents of small children nearby are horrified by his behavior. A few of them chime in their two cents, which is like adding fire-crackers to a smoldering flame. The crescendo was being disrespectful to any adult who crossed his path. Once you set off a kid with Asperger's...it takes time and patience to rain him back in. He has to get away from the situation, calm down. Then of course he is apologetic for his behavior, angry and self loathing because of his lack of control.
The natural consequence is that he is suspended from city pools for one week. I added that he will not attend a public pool with out my presence until I can be assured of self-control, which is never. From now on he will swim at our local pool or another pool where we have membership and I will be present. So much for inner-peace.
BTW -one might ask, "Why didn't your husband go and handle the situation instead of calling you out of your class? What was he doing was he too far away?" When we got home -he was laying across the bed watching the All-star game. His reason for not going was that he was too stressed out after dealing with "21" earlier in the day. Mind you...he made one phone call to our son. I talked to him, texted him half a dozen times then followed up with the creditor.
This is why I don't work outside of home. These boys -even the one that's out of the house, are more than a full-time job.
Namaste'
Not the expert mom with all the answers...the mom who can't stop looking for them.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Down Dog (pt. 2)
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Comments by IntenseDebate
Posting anonymously.
Adelaide Dupont · 285 weeks ago
And for those of us who knew and appreciated these points in high school to a greater or lesser extent - always good to have a refresher and feel them through the current and future generations who we survived to be able to see.
I especially appreciated points 5, 7 and 10.
And young women not settling or settling down yet is a good thing.
"It's never too late to live our dreams" - but it may be too early for some of them!
And 8 of course.
nicole · 243 weeks ago
Risa · 230 weeks ago
LAH · 221 weeks ago
Maira L. Coral · 216 weeks ago
I was looking for information for my Multi-Genre Disability Research Project from my Early Childhood Special Education class on the web, when suddenly I came across your blog. I started reading this out of curiosity and I want to tell you that as you said yourself, you will not be Amanda Gorman, but you managed to make me shed some tears, perhaps because I felt totally identified with your words, especially in the part that you speak of your son. My son also has Asperger's syndrome, he is 19 years old and he is in the second semester of College. Also like yours, he takes classes from home, likewise my eldest daughter is also taking college classes from her room. At the same time, that I work as a preschool teacher from my kitchen through a computer, my husband sleeps in the room during the day because he works at night. Also in the afternoons I myself take virtual school classes. I am a 51-year-old Latin woman who began to learn the English language as adult, so maybe you find some deficiencies in my writing, however, I was very moved by how proud you express yourself about your son. Referent your mother, I liked the humorous tone that you give when your talk about her, so I did not want to miss this opportunity and stopped my assignments for a moment to let you know that your words do make a difference, since they reach the heart of at least those who have opportunity to read you. I want confess you that is the most long I have written to someone I don't know, because your words inspired me, thank you...
Gavin Bollard · 209 weeks ago
Thanks for this post. I've been very distracted of late and so this was how I found out about our friend Kate. Kate's struggles were very real but they were so constant and so wide-ranging that it was difficult for people around her to address them. I think it's going to take a while longer for me to process all this.
I learned so much from Kate because she was always quick to point out the many injustices in the world. In her glory days, she was very much a crusader and she cared for everyone. Over the years, as her situation took its toll, I came to realise that it was the fact that she couldn't be put in a single specific category, that made the system fail her. She needed help that they weren't set up to provide.
She needed more care and she needed to be less alone. I'm so sorry that this has happened.
For a long while we were corresponding almost every day but a couple of months ago, I realised that she had become so stressed that nearly every interaction I had with her was starting to trigger her. I backed away to give her a bit more space. She only had a little time that she could stand to be online and there were too many things that she wanted to do in that time. I thought that by taking a step back, she could reach out to more people who might be geographically closer and able to assist.
Kate was a beautiful soul and she will be sorely missed by all of us.
diyalabs6192603 11p · 192 weeks ago
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Spoil your cat · 122 weeks ago
Many of these living arrangement aren't good, and many of the people who run those places really don't have the residents' best interest at heart. Those places are like old age homes and foster homes, where you sometimes hear horror stories. They're hard to trust. But then there are good ones, of course.
The best thing for an autistic adult is either to go on living at home or working and renting an apartment and living independently, but that isn't always an option.
Duncan · 112 weeks ago