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Can you see him makeing it as an adult in this world?

I have three sons. My youngest is 13. The other two are grown and on thier own. Of course I'm a typical Mom and always remember my kids as my babies, however I don't so much worry about these two older ones as far as their ability to 'make it' in this world. I know they are both inteligent and capable young adults who can figure out how to get done whatever they decide they need to do in life. This youngest one however is a different story. I mean since he was very young he has had certain ways about him that I was in hopes (for his sake) he would out grow. No such luck. I often find myself obseveing something he has done and just shaking my head inside and thinking 'O lord who's gonna take care of this kid once his Dad and i can't'. And the older he gets of course the more worriesome this becomes.

He just seems to have this extreamley awkward and haphazard way about everything he dose. If he dose dishes for instance the dishes will end up in the drainer in a haphazard pile in every direction, some upside down, some rightside up with water standing in them (and yes I have showed him the way to stack dishes so that at least the water draines off of them). Then later when I go to use them I will usually findsome are not compleatley clean. There will surley be a few dishes scattered about the kitchen that he forgot or didnt notice. The intire kitchen will probably have water splatered about. I mean I have actually put a large bath towel under him to do dishes as he ends up standing in a puddle of water that has splashed out of the sink and or ran down his elbows to the floor becouse the task some how ends up takeing him so long that he ends up leaning over the sink. And this doing dishes, soething I thought was a simple task.

I got up one morning and went into the kitchen. My kitchen looked like a koolaid factore had exploaded in it. I mean pink everywhere, counters, floor, fridge...Yea my son dicided to make coolaid after I went to bed. It remminded me of that Cat in the Hat story I used to read my kids where the mom leaft the kids home and a pink sopt got on something and the Cat in the Hat come to help clean it. Everytimg they wipped the pink it got on something else. It grew and grew. It become a bunch of pink spots all over everything in the house. It ended up also outside and the snow was all pink spotted. yea that's how I think of my son and doing just about anything he dose.

My middle son had always put up our christmas tree since he was eight. This year was the first year he has been out of the house. We told my 13 year old that job would now go to him. So finally a few days before Christmas Adam decided to get out the tree ( my middle son always did it about a month before christmas). There were decorations randomley scattered threwout all the rooms of the house and by the time the tree was done there were randome decorations hear and their and One huge bull on one side. I loked at it and smilled. so there was only one large ball? lol.

It's not only the disorganized ways. sometimes he will just do something that makes you shake you head and wonder what going on in his mind. One night late he wanted to order a pizza. I told him to call. When he was on the phone I heard the front door of our house open and close ... him going out and back in while on the phone with the pizza guy. After he hung up I asked him why he went outside. Apparentley after the pizza guy got our adress he asked 'is it a regular house' trying to make sure he knew how to find the correct place. ... "So you went outside to look at the house to see if it is a regular house?" I asked my son. "yea" he replied..... hmmmm?

Furthermore he barley makes it in school even though his IQ tests within average intelegence. After he finished fifth grade his brother and I both were surprised to find out that he was passed on to middle school. Him with compleatley spacy, absent minded, disorganized, and haphazardness. He can't remember what assignment is due...can remember very little of anything the teacher said...can't find his book,,, dose an assignment (if he can get that far) and can't find it to turn it in. .... we were thinking... "now he has to change classes and have six different teadchers and classrooms!"..."They put him in middle school!!??" my other son siad almost sounding mad..."He's not gonna make it!!" I didn't see how he would make it either. He passed sixth grade by the skin of his teath and dddn't pass seventh grade and is in seventh grade again this year.

Besides the point of him getting at least a high school diploma...I sometimes try to imagion him as an adult trying to make it in this world on his own. I know how it is for me as a Mom to ask him to do something and find that it ends up more of a mess than it ever would have been if he'd not done it. I have a hard time inagioneing hiim finding an employer willing to pay him for his efforts....... A mother has to wonder what will become of this boy's life.

Comments

I have a friend whose autistic son is 18 and he has the same worries you do. He wants his son to go to college. Myself, I don't think this kid is ready for college, especially away from home. He's never had a job, either. His high school education is fairly typical--heavy on the college prep classes, nonexistent on anything practical.

The other day I was over visiting and right before my eyes it was like someone had thrown a switch. One minute we were all chatting pleasantly about school and the next he was using the foulest language. I'd never seen him like that before but his dad says that he has temper issues. I'm thinking, oh-oh. I would not want to be a young man right now with Aspergers and anger management issues, especially in a school setting. His dad says the college they've picked out (a private college) has programs in place for kids like him, but still . . .

His dad said he was like that because he'd been on Christmas vacation too long and he needs to go back to the structured environment of high school. Well, I don't care how good that college's programs are for autistic kids, the fact is that when you are in college you are pretty much on your own. As long as tuition is paid up they really don't care what you do, if you do the work or don't do the work, go to class or don't go to class. College isn't at all like high school. My thinking is that he'd be better off going to the local community college and give that a try rather than plunge directly into a 4-year institution away from home. But I can't convince his father that. I'm thinking, My God, if this kid can't self-organize at 18, if two weeks of Christmas vacation away from a structured school environment is enough to unhinge him, what is going to happen to him at this school? He's an adult now. Mommy and Daddy aren't going to be able to shield him much longer.

So I don't know what will happen to those of us who can't get the hang of how life really is. I know I probably gave my parents some anxious moments too but that was a different time then. I can't even imagine being a parent of someone like myself now. I'm sure that there were times that they despaired, too.

The only thing that I can say is find out what motivates him and try to work with that. And this may sound a bit heretical coming from someone whose family background is education (both parents teachers) but I am wondering if not graduating from high school might be best for him at this stage of life. The reason I say this is that he can always go back and get a GED when his mind has matured enough to do the work. But if he graduates from high school, then as far as society is concerned, he's educated even though you and I know that diploma is only good enough to use as TP. Yes, it may hurt him when it comes to employment but from the sounds of it at this stage he's not ready for that either.

Wish you the best of luck.
 

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