Blog on being an aspie, parenting aspies

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Hey, guys, I've recently started a blog from the perspective of a parent with Aspergers who has children with Aspergers. I write it so others with kids on the spectrum can try and understand their kid better.

Can you all give me some input? Ideas on what else I should write about? Thanks!

parentingwithaspergers.blogspot.com/

Is my post that boring? lol

[Moved from Art, Writing, and Music to Parents' Discussion]

I hope you'll get a better response here!

Oh. Thanks.

I really like your idea about heterism. The left handed and right handed analogy really adjusted my thinking. Something finally clicked in my NT head. Will definitely read more later.

~Erica

I read a few articles and like it a lot.

Thank you both so much!

I want my bog to be helpful and informative, so getting feedback is good.

I was reading your blog on cleaning. I think that I will use this tact with my son next time. I think I have been providing too many details so as to not miss a step. I need to focus on the big, important steps.

On a second note, my AS son collects odd bits, toys, things he wants and carries them off to his room. I have tried to provide boxes, treasure chests, containers, shelves et cetera for these things he has. He does fine cleaning his room and putting away the things which have places (such as the dinosaur drawer, and the lego box, but has no idea what to do with the things with no defined place. I have tried to get him to "pick a place for them." or "make a place for them." or "just put them someplace." Inevitably, they end up in a pile in the corner or under the bed or the back of the closet. He can't seem to think of a way to organize his things himself. Do you have this problem? What do you do about it?

I DO have this problem! It's extremely frustrating. A lot of my own stuff doesn't really have a place. I can't seem to make a place for it, either. So my husband helps me. We talk about it. I think about it. Then I can make a decision. My decision is based on what the collection of items is, what it's used for, etc. It's not a perfect system by any means, but having someone talk it through with me helps. And I need reminders. Sometimes labels are good.

another thing I do is get rid of stuff. If I have too much stuff and can't find a place, I just get rid of it. If I don't use it anymore, if it's broken, if it's just not of interest, it goes. I do this with my kids toys, too, but only every 3 mos or so, and never when they're home. I get rid of *only* the items that are broken or they don't play with. I end up with at least 1 trash bag full of broken toys and garbage and they NEVER miss it. I have to be very aware of what I'm getting rid of, though. I never get rid of things while they're home and I never get rid of toys I've seen them play with within the last month or so.

It sounds like I will just have to keep helping him on this for a while. Maybe I can do a better job verbalizing my thought processes for organizing and offer him suggestions. It is difficult as I like organizing and can spend hours sorting and organizing, while my son is happy to sit in the midst of chaos, and quickly loses interest in organizing.

I also go through my children's things and clean out a couple of times a year. However, I always do it with my children as I have awful memories of coming home after a visit with my father every summer to find things important to me gone. When they were younger, it was more difficult for them to let things go. As they are older and practiced, they are better than I am at it. Broken toys almost always go. Projects out of bits and pieces almost always go. Toys and books they don't want go to charity - we used to give them to daycare so they could say "this was mine, but now it is the daycare's toy" I also worry about throwing away things important to my son as a bit of bone or rock may be very important while a $50 toy he may care nothing about. When we do this, I usually redo all the sorting boxes and labels and I do 85% of the work.