Fran
Former desparate mom
difficult child is doing well. He was approved for some additional services this week. It allows more long term support and more job coaching/advocacy.
He met with his job coach who has a son difficult child's age with a similar diagnosis. It helps to know she is familiar with young men like difficult child. He will be filling out applications next week and I DON"T HAVE TO DO IT. He and his job coach will take care of it. The economy doesn't really help but the fact that some of the responsibilities for difficult child will be given over to difficult child and a professional really eases my frustration and burden of having a man/child.
His medications have been changed and difficult child is doing well. As I listened to him speak to the job coach, I realized how very articulate he is. No one would know if they didn't know. However, I fear that he does cover his disability(as we all do) and worry that the expectation will be higher than he can manage. Hopefully, his progress will calm my concerns. It's his life and I must sit back and just be the safety net.
difficult child has registered for a Sci fi convention 2 hrs away at the end of May. He took the initiative and did the research. I just encouraged him to present the info and the plan. He did well. He and a buddy from Va. are going to a three day convention. He chose to not go in costume(TG!) until he got a feel for the place.(very good thinking in my humble opinion) Maybe next year he would do it. I'm tickled that he showed initiative and planning and we are tickled that he is going to do something he always wanted to do. I don't mind a sci fi geek at all. He has his GPS all set up and is ready to go. LOL. Who is this kid? Don't want to jinx it. Once again, he was not dependent on us to initiate his interest and his own entertainment. It pleases me a great deal to see him engaged in a life. One step at a time.
easy child has been accepted to a college in Florida for his sophomore year. Not our choice but a good school and fits with his life plan. It's tough to parent an adult child. We have butted heads over this frequently but I don't want to control but present other opinions. He is pretty self directed and independent. I did draw the line at full time school and full time work. Can you imagine? I have to stop one child from working too much and the other has to be nudged to work. Sheesh. If easy child is tired from working the first thing down the drain is school work. Who is going to write a paper or study if exhausted from work? I came down hard on this point and wouldn't budge. It's my line in the sand. School has to be the priority or he shouldn't go. It's actually about learning and not getting a piece of paper.
In the meantime, he was put on a stimulant which seems to really have helped him. There is some concern about a one time incident 2 yrs ago of atrial fibrillation of unknown cause but he is taking it slow. He seems less "glass half empty" type of person.
I never took a daily medication until I was 30 and it was synthroid. Both of my boys are on several. Sigh. Between anticonvulsents, antidepressents, stimulants, mood stabilizers you wonder what they would be like without any of it. Truthfully, I don't want to try it. Someday they may choose to do so but it will be on them. I'm just a safety net.
Parenting adult children is more of an art than a science. I'm tiptoeing around the obvious pitfalls and my natural instinct to nurture and protect them. I could use a stronger filter on my blunt talk but I can only change so much and I am who I am.
Mom has decided she would rather be in her own house despite having pretty severe arterial disease in her whole body. She wants to die planting tomatoes than sitting on a couch. It's a worry but I don't want to treat her like a child.
Things keep moving along despite my wish to slow life down. Doesn't seem to be happening. If you got this far, I hope I didn't bore you to much.
He met with his job coach who has a son difficult child's age with a similar diagnosis. It helps to know she is familiar with young men like difficult child. He will be filling out applications next week and I DON"T HAVE TO DO IT. He and his job coach will take care of it. The economy doesn't really help but the fact that some of the responsibilities for difficult child will be given over to difficult child and a professional really eases my frustration and burden of having a man/child.
His medications have been changed and difficult child is doing well. As I listened to him speak to the job coach, I realized how very articulate he is. No one would know if they didn't know. However, I fear that he does cover his disability(as we all do) and worry that the expectation will be higher than he can manage. Hopefully, his progress will calm my concerns. It's his life and I must sit back and just be the safety net.
difficult child has registered for a Sci fi convention 2 hrs away at the end of May. He took the initiative and did the research. I just encouraged him to present the info and the plan. He did well. He and a buddy from Va. are going to a three day convention. He chose to not go in costume(TG!) until he got a feel for the place.(very good thinking in my humble opinion) Maybe next year he would do it. I'm tickled that he showed initiative and planning and we are tickled that he is going to do something he always wanted to do. I don't mind a sci fi geek at all. He has his GPS all set up and is ready to go. LOL. Who is this kid? Don't want to jinx it. Once again, he was not dependent on us to initiate his interest and his own entertainment. It pleases me a great deal to see him engaged in a life. One step at a time.
easy child has been accepted to a college in Florida for his sophomore year. Not our choice but a good school and fits with his life plan. It's tough to parent an adult child. We have butted heads over this frequently but I don't want to control but present other opinions. He is pretty self directed and independent. I did draw the line at full time school and full time work. Can you imagine? I have to stop one child from working too much and the other has to be nudged to work. Sheesh. If easy child is tired from working the first thing down the drain is school work. Who is going to write a paper or study if exhausted from work? I came down hard on this point and wouldn't budge. It's my line in the sand. School has to be the priority or he shouldn't go. It's actually about learning and not getting a piece of paper.
In the meantime, he was put on a stimulant which seems to really have helped him. There is some concern about a one time incident 2 yrs ago of atrial fibrillation of unknown cause but he is taking it slow. He seems less "glass half empty" type of person.
I never took a daily medication until I was 30 and it was synthroid. Both of my boys are on several. Sigh. Between anticonvulsents, antidepressents, stimulants, mood stabilizers you wonder what they would be like without any of it. Truthfully, I don't want to try it. Someday they may choose to do so but it will be on them. I'm just a safety net.
Parenting adult children is more of an art than a science. I'm tiptoeing around the obvious pitfalls and my natural instinct to nurture and protect them. I could use a stronger filter on my blunt talk but I can only change so much and I am who I am.
Mom has decided she would rather be in her own house despite having pretty severe arterial disease in her whole body. She wants to die planting tomatoes than sitting on a couch. It's a worry but I don't want to treat her like a child.
Things keep moving along despite my wish to slow life down. Doesn't seem to be happening. If you got this far, I hope I didn't bore you to much.