Kitty4670 wrote:
MagicMeerkat wrote:
I HATE this concept so much! My parents used it as an excuse to make me hang out with this neighbor girl 7 years younger than me who only pretended to like me so she could use my laptop and play games she didn't have. She came from a religious family that hated Mormons for some reason. She was in a fourm for other kids her age. I didn't care if she used it as it was intended.
She found out another little girl on the fourm was Mormon and wanted to create a new user account just to bully this girl. I said, 'If you want to do that, you're gonna have to find another computer. If you use mine, you have to obey my rules for it. You don't have to interact with this Mormon girl, but you CAN'T be mean to her." I tried to tell my parents I really didn't want to basically have to babysit a teenager who didn't need a babysitter and had other friends. My parents were like, "Well you're autistic and because of your mental age you can't make friends your own age!"
I also had to go to a swim class, even though I NEVER expressed any interest in swimming and we lived in a landlocked state but since they were specifically catered to autistic kids, I HAD to take them. Aside from a girl who was non verbal and either in her late teens or early 20's, I was the oldest one there. Ever other kid there was either a toddler or preschooler. But again, it was fine and dandy because "you're autistic and your mental age is younger".
If I wanted to do something I was legit intrested in some activity or group that was for my actual age group my parents were like, "No, your autistic and your mental age is lower". I was never allowed to quit any of the activites my parents insisted I do becuase they didn't want me to develop a "quiter" mindset. I never wanted to be a "starter" for most of these in the first place.
I never really had any desire to make friends, even friends my own age. I was content to be alone doing my own thing but if I did desire friends my own age I would have had to kiss that goodbye becuase since my parents only let me do activities for younger kids beucase they were adamant my mental age was drastically lower than my chronological age.
That was so wrong of your parents to tell you what do to, my mom tell me I have to join a club or take classes to make friends, I wasn’t making friends, my mom wasn’t too bad. I don’t know why parents think they know better than you, your parents should have asked you. Do you still live with your parents?
I moved back with my parents after my apartment building was "arsoned". My father has since passed away and my mom is much nicer than she used to be. She used the mental age thing for years to try to prevent me from getting my own place...at 26. Said I needed to live in a group home for a while to learn how to be independent. That's not how it works. I didn't buy it. I convinced her to at least tell me the name of the place she wanted to send me. Some place out of state. My brother's friend had a sister who had Down Syndrome and since it seemed to be working well for her it would work out well for me. I looked over their testimonials and all of them were from parents or caretakers of someone with a more severe disability. Not from the residents themselves. I emailed them, asking what it was like to live there, saying my parents wanted to send me there. I told my mom I never got a response and she blew up, claiming I sabotaged my chances of getting in because I showed them how high functioning I was. That wasn't my original intention but okay, good. Becuase I didn't want to go there. It's harder to get out of a group home than it is to get in. My best friend from 4th grade only got out becuase she developed physical health problems and needs dialysis twice a week and had to go to a nursing home. I think my mom had an undiagnosed stroke that was messing with her ability to comprehend basic logic and making her kinda mean. But eventually she did let me move out. It took spending 5 days in a homeless shelter but hey it worked. I only wanted to take horse riding classes where they teach actual riding, not turn it into a physical therapy session where they expect you to lay down on the horse's back while it's still saddled. I wanted to learn to jump but I never even learned to gallop. I hear horse people are really mean and nasty but still I wish I would have been able to experience that for myself.
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Spell meerkat with a C, and I will bite you.
26 Nov 2023, 7:39 pm
