A shower is not a conspiracy...really....

So, we're still alive.
We are black, blue, purple and brindle but we are still breathing.
Or so it's rumoured.
Staying on the quiet, keeping things even...steady....calm....
Sorta like holding back the waves of the ocean with your bare hands.
Yeah, and just as successful *snort*
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Aspie teen has it set in his head that when he has a shower it HAS to be right before he goes to bed.
Not before and certainly not in any morning.
Unless he's got something on....then it takes days to get him psyched into an unscheduled shower.
So, tonight, we managed to talk him into having a hot, soothing shower to ease his aching muscles post-footy match in just 3 hours and without a major hiccup.
Mini meltdown that involved enough heavy breathing and wall-knocking stims that would make any Poltergeist happy certainly but it barely rated an  "oh, crap, not again " in light of recent events so we won't log that one.
Gave him a thorough back rub after the shower with the good old Deep Heat, then he was shocked at how much better his back felt and how much more easily he was able to move.
Yeah, we got vindicated, baby!!!!
Parents don't talk through a hole in their heads, woot!

The pleasures of meeting up with other ASD parents

The Hubby, being on the Spectrum and all that, has slowly let drip bits of info from the Aspie teen social night that I obviously didn't cover in my direct questions.
*pause to roll eyes and snort*
Yeah, anyways, apparently he got talking with the other parents and wow!
Yes, all of their kids fight with their bedding in their sleep til it's in a ball.
Yes, all of their kids have messy rooms.
Yes, all of their kids sleep in their clothes.
Yes, all of their kids sleep curled tightly in the fetal position.
Yes, all of their kids  do not make their beds or tidy their rooms...
Whoa!!!!
None of the Aspie kids clean their rooms, make their own beds or even change their bed linen.
Even though they all have OCD they cannot cope with breaking off their train of thought/routine or incorporating a plan of action into their activities that involves something as mundane as tidying/cleaning.
And none of their parents do it for them, either, unless it's to rake out the smelly bed linen and throw a clean set of sheets on the bed.
From a distance.
Wearing a Hazmat suit.
And having the full Silkwood anti-nuclear shower afterwards.
One mum, an old friend, joked how she almost goes A over T just walking through her son's room with all the power cords and stuff everywhere while another assured Hubby that her daughter's bed was a mess inside 5 mins of her making it and yet another laughed as she told how she learnt to never, ever, ever disturb the things in her daughter and son's rooms, that cleanliness was not worth the increased anxiety - for both her kids and herself.
So, not only do we no longer feel pressured to either tidy the room or somehow get Aspie teen to clean up/make his bed/wear pajamas (without copping a full-on meltdown) but Aspie teen is now happily grinning like the Cheshire Cat saying,
"I'm normal for once!!!!"

Why I saddled up this hobby horse in this horse race

Blogging is not new to me but personal blogging is.
I have a history blog I write under another name, referring in passing to my son's autism (and his giftbag of other labels) but never giving out many details of him.
Until recently.
He finally allowed me to burble about him and the issues he faces, no longer feeling that it was merely more grist for 'them' to tease him with.
And plus I was over-flowing with stuff I couldn't talk about.
Honestly, I was bursting at times, wanting to talk to other mums of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) kids but unable to openly discuss Aspie teen, even with some friends.
Since I started this blog it's been amazing.
I have found some fabulous parents to get ideas from, borrow strength and to share jokes with.
Sometimes the Autistic Spectrum creates a select niche of people who aren't fully understood by those looking on; we're weird, we talk in a form of short-hand together, we get where each other is coming from, sometimes we've been on the same path together, maybe a little ahead or a little behind the other but the same seemingly roundabout path of therapists, specialists, neurologists, allergists, GPs,speechies, physios, psychologists and psychiatrists.
Then not to forget trawling through the latest medical breakthrough that gets trumpeted from the rooftops by the media and discuss it back and forth, swapping urls, names of recommended specialists, medicines, routines, etc.
We have little time to ourselves, we're forever running about for our kids, mostly we're just.too.tired to deal with other people who (for example) whinge about their child who can't recite their alphabet at age 3 when ours is yet to learn to crawl but can write the entire alphabet at the same age.
Sometimes plodding on the ASD road can be bloody lonely, hard and exhausting yet there's a million other ASD parents out there willing to give you a gentle pat on the back to help you get your second wind and tackle another day.
This personal blogging lark has paid for itself in spades with all the lovely people I've met.
Thanks :)