Finding the right mix ....

This is Nicks first summer "home".

Since he was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 3 he has been "schooled" in one way or the other year round.

We have done Autism pre-school programs ... in house therapy ... speech therapy ... summer day camps etc.

Once he started public school he would generally have one week off and then right back into a summer program of some sort.

This year we have scaled back to just 15 hrs a week of Mr. John coming to work with him on community type activities to help build social skills, other than that the boy is home.

He LOVES it .. he truly enjoys not having the rules of a summer program.

He will be 13 in less than a month and he figured out a few years ago that most day camp programs stop at the age of 13. Even though I technically could have gotten one more summer of camp for him , since the end of last summer he had convinced himself he was done. I just couldn't do it to him.

When a child with Autism can say .. "Well how come I always have to go and no one else does ? I just want to stay home like everyone else !" it makes you rethink the situation and realize that you have to acknowledge that is a "normal, typical" thing to ask and say. It's a good thing right ?

There are positives for me too. I so far haven't missed having to drag him out of bed in his really grumpy morning state to head to a still chilly camp in the mountains in the early morning.
He is very pleased to be able to stay up later and sleep in longer in the mornings , that too is a typical teen.

BUT ..... I have discovered in a short time that even with his proclaimed need for independence and being "like everyone else" he still has Autism. Autism and a puberty, need I say more ?

Nick still needs rules and routine.
Without them he starts to take forget that no means no .. that just because you don't HAVE to get up early doesn't really mean you can stay up til WHENEVER you want and do WHATEVER you want too.

His attitude changed within the last week. Mouthy and harder to reign in when I need him too.
If I heard "HOLD ON" one more time when I called the child I was gonna scream.
Week 2 of "freedom" became a tad to0 much for the child.

So the hammer came down yesterday.
Shut off timers had to be set on the Xbox. The computer had to be password protected again so he couldn't sneak on when the mood struck him.
Bedtimes had to be set and enforced once again and I will be "waking" him up today so that he doesn't sleep half the day away making it really tough to get him to bed at night.

This made for one unpleasent child yesterday.
Nick quote:
"Why do you have to ruin my life ? "

Because my child at the present time .. that is my job.

Geeze maybe he really is just a "typical teen" !