You're The Inspiration

Ok so I got broadband yesterday and spent the day wondering what to look up. How dreary can one get? After the usual checking my emails and browsing the rollercoaster I ran out of options. The rollercoaster is moving at a very slow pace this last while. I turn to Hammie's blog in the hope she has something new posted or someone has left a comment for her and she never lets me down. She really puts herself out there, wears her heart on her sleeve and says it like it is. With 2 children on the autistic spectrum I wonder how she gets the energy, what drives her? I am in awe of you Hammie and aspire to be like you. The time and dedication she puts into her 2 wonderful kids is being rewarded with their great progress.

Maybe that's where I am going wrong..My little babs is on the mild end of the spectrum and this week has made me realise that maybe I am handing him over to be 'fixed' without trying to do some of the repairs myself, if that makes sense. Am I still in denial? I was sure I had reached the acceptance stage. His home tutor is on holidays this week and is due to finish up in 2 weeks and the thoughts of not having her to work with him scares the bejaysus out of me. Will he regress without her? Then I think just because I don't sit in a quiet room with him for half the day (chance would be a fine thing with 3 others running riot) going through his prepositions, reading to him, threading beads, helping him to hold a pencil the correct way etc., does not mean he is not learning, or does it?. I think he picks up more social skills, which he lacked for a long time, from being round his siblings and from watching me around the house (he could use the remote from a very early age..wonder where he picked that up??).

I'm not one for the housework, never was, even as a child I hated clearing up and dusting etc. When I know someone's coming then I go mental trying to get it all done in an hour and always start upstairs. Why, I don't know because they are never gonna go upstairs. That is probably one of my autistic traits (which I didn't realise I had until a recent post on RC got me thinking). Anyway the reason my mind has wandered to this is because at one of his last appointments with the early intervention team I asked to sit in with babs and watch. The SLT began working on his expressive language skills and as part of this showed him a few pictures of people in various situations in an attempt to get him to think about what will happen next.

Example, Clothes hanging on a line and lady about to take them off - SLT says "Babs what's the lady going to do with the clothes? Babs replies "in the wash sheen", SLT "Good try but babs the clothes are dry" He hasn't a clue..probably would help if we had a washing line at home but I only do tumble dryers.. Same scenario with picture of lady cleaning windows..he has never seen me do it so how would he know? The only one he got right was the lady putting dry dishes into the press. I am glad I was in the room to see this and could explain that he would never have witnessed such situations. Had I not been she would probably have assumed I was bad housekeeper (she would have been right in this assumption). When babs doesn't know the answers he stays silent because he doesn't want to give the wrong answer. That got me to thinking about the couple of assessments he had done and would he have scored low because of tests like that, not that it would have made much difference to end results but maybe their pictures need to be updated to include tumble dryers, dishwashers and other convenience items.


I like convenience as much as the next woman although I do consider myself lazy, however...where I used to work, one of the managers had her first child and would you believe she never made up a bottle using powder formula- she only bought the readymade, she doesn't cook so it's microwave meals or takeaways, she uses the floor cleaning wipes - no bucket and mop, same with dusting wipes. That was 5 yrs ago and I hear she is still the same. She still has only one child so put me standing beside her with my 4 and I think I would take the crown for Domestic Goddess! "Life is too short for housework", somebody famous once said (ok so I made it up - but when I am famous remember where you heard it first!)