For the first time Dane is taking some classes outside of homeschooling. We have had a rough year or two and I felt it was time he acquire some skills in the real world. We decided to send him to a work readiness speech and language program 4 hours a week with 4 other young men on the spectrum. The class has been amazing. He has been attending the classes long enough now that the guys his age feel like “friends’ now. In good Dane-friendly fashion he decided to invite all of them over to hang out at our house last week. Dane loves people. Dane loves to make plans. Dane is incredibly spontaneous. All these things are not very autistic of him. Haha
Anyway, one of the guys from class asked to speak with me. He said he had transportation difficulties and would not make it over to visit with Dane. I told him that was ok, he could just work it out with Dane. He then went on to tell me about how ethnicity also played into him not coming over & it was such short notice because he is from blah blah blah and …
I again said ok, just work it out with Dane. And then he gives me a speech on how socioeconomics plays a role in these sorts of things and that in the future he needs more notice to hang out. Possibly 2 weeks notice. Then it was… maybe a longer weekend would be better, it would give him more time.
I’m going to be an asshole here for a minute and tell you I was dying. I was completely bewildered about what might be going on in this class Dane is taking and maybe that there is absolutely nothing to be gained from putting 5 autistic guys together? Turns out somehow this guy graduated UCLA with a sociology degree but can’t fucking come hang out its too complicated! WTF?!
Why go through all the effort to spend the money and get your kid a degree if they can’t function in the real fucking world? People, for God’s sake and everyone else’s - fight like hell teach your kids to be inclusive and not allow all this wacky behavior. Their lives are hard enough without learning everyone else’s weird ass shit.
Yes, Dane struggles with certain things - like his credit card debt and being able to pay it off. Which is pretty much on topic with every other American - so BOOM - maybe I did something right! Haha