Ok...so Step-dad might not have been as impressed with what my boys accomplished yesterday...but I saw how hard all three worked. His kiddo required just as much help as my two biologically did. All three worked for 5 solid hours...then loaded the truck with the goodwill stuff for me while I was in the shower without even being asked to! They reorganized their closets....donated 8 huge plastic bags full of clothes to goodwill and otherwise straightened up.
My AS son did just as well as his NT brothers. Now, granted they are three years younger....most people would have expected better...but since his was the room I was dreading the most, it was a blessed relief. He did it all by himself. He requested several mini-inspections, where I would give him guidance about what needed to be worked on next (in a big list form so he could pick the task he wanted to do first), but in the end he got them all done. We ran out of time and energy to vacuum....so of course SD pointed that out and apparently I didn't remind him about under the bed...so he got critiqued for that...
Ok....so my husband is not quite the "taskmaster" that it sounds like...I was using him being gone to work and the kids surprising him to motivate them. He didn't yell at them about their rooms...just pointed out one kid neglected all his drawers and the other under the bed....
It would have been nice if he would have given them a positive...good job son...but he is old school former Army Ranger...and when a superior does a bunk inspection...nothing bad is praise enough. I don't hold to that way of thinking so they got plenty of praise from me! (Along with a list of things to finish up today!)
So, here is what we accomplished today,
-with much less assistance than ever before my AS kid cleaned and organized his own room. (boy how I wish he had gotten the organization freak type of AS...but oh well)
-he learned a valuable communication lesson about how normal people do not live like hoarders...and that he has a "hoarding gene" that he must fight like an "addiction gene"
-he was rewarded by an evening alone with his computer
-he is ready to tackle the rest of the "easier tasks" today like vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom (which is surprisingly not so bad)
The great thing about his college of choice is that he can get a single occupancy room with his own bathroom in one of the dorm quads...at the same price as a double occupancy (due to his diagnosis) so that he can learn to live with strangers and share the common area (kitchen and living room) while still having his own private area to retreat to and study in! Now we just have to make the grades to get into college!
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