Meltdowns- behaving as an adult when your child doesn't
Care-giving for a 17 Year old Autistic Kid is easy- right? "Fuck You"! This is a word that signals a potential meltdown in our house. Being raised as a Christian where swearing was forbidden, I find it somewhat amusing to be now living in a house and care-giving for a 17 year old who cannot remove this phrase from his core vocabulary. I think I do sometimes mutter 'god help me' under my breath when a meltdown is brewing, but I'm fully aware that even 'He' won't be able to stop it. The 17 year old I care-give for only had his ASD diagnosis just before his 17th birthday. At this stage he was living at home with his parents. I had heard the yelling and swearing over the fence from my beach house with him and his family- you'd have to be deaf to miss it! I never knew that 3 months later, he'd be doing the same thing in my house! Such a brave lad to ask me to help him, and then ask my husband and I if he could come and live with us. ...