20 pages of homework, 4 tylenol, & 2 glasses of wine

     Day after day & week after week we get notes sent home in Jayden’s backpack saying the same thing.  “Mr. Hibben, Jayden did NO work at all today”  Homework with “He Never Started” on the top in blue marker. 8 pages of home work on Monday, 13 on Tues., & a record setting 21 pages of home work on Wed!  I have sat down & talked to him about this before to really try to figure this out or at least a way around his problem so we could get some work done, as I’m sure every parent of an Autistic kid is thinking right now, it never works!  I really took some time the other day after getting a note that said Jayden didn’t do even one thing all day long to try & make some head way.  The teacher just said he sat at his desk & looked around all day in his own world.
     Starting off I let him know that above all other things “You are not in trouble!” Easier said than done but after some jokes & a juice pack we got to the place I wanted to be.  Part of my problem is that I’m still not sure where Asperger’s stops & the 7 year old boy starts!  When I was 7 I already didn’t want to do school work & wanted to draw all the time so what is AS & what is BOY.  Who knows!?!  What I do know is that his reasoning for not doing work all day long, in the end no matter how I look at it, makes some sort of odd logic to me.  His pencils were not sharpened.  ”Why didn’t you ask the teacher to sharpen one for you Jayden?” to that he simply replied “She was a bit busy & I was a bit shy.”
     If there is anything life with kids has taught me it’s that all you can do is roll with life & see what happens & that there is very little an Ibuprophen 800 or glass of wine will not fix or at least make somewhat better.  I think Charlie Brown said it best when he said Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, “Why me?”, then a voice answers “Nothing personal, your name just happened to come up.”  Thanks for reading!! Have a great Christmas!