I am still here. It may not seem like it since I haven't updated my blog since last week, but I am still here, still reading other people's blogs, still chasing children and cleaning up after puppies. If I could find my camera I'd post a picture of either the children or the puppies, but alas... I think Sam played with it... somewhere.... hopefully somewhere safe and dry.
The puppies turned six weeks old yesterday so I will begin advertising them next week. My goal is to find them all homes between 8 and 12 weeks of age. This week I need to vaccinate everybody and buy MORE food. I cannot believe how darn much food those little dogs go through. It was just last week (I think) that I purchased 60 pounds of puppy food. Tonight it is all gone. Tonight I need to go shopping.
We have a new cloverbud member in our 4-H club. He's going to be taking a rabbit project. This brings our total up to 4 kids with rabbits (confirmed- there may be 3 or 4 others who haven't committed for sure yet). Of those 4 kids, 3 are boys. This is unusual. Most of the time girls in 4-H outnumber boys about 3:1. Girls in the rabbit project usually outnumber boys about 20:1. It also looks as if all three boys may be on the Autism Spectrum. None of us knew each other before the year began. These are random boys who've found their way into our club and into our project. And now 75% of my members are males who most likely have Asperger's Syndrome or something very similar.
It's a very strange world and that small world is still supporting my suspicion that AS may not truly be a disorder or disability. I think that odd parents raise odd children and we should just accept that and stop trying to make everybody "normal." It's not as if the normal's are all that wonderful most of the time anyway. Possibly the scientist's and engineers among us are truly wired differently neurologically and we should respect the difference and quit trying to make them into social butterflies. It's important to have enough social skills to get through a job interview and not offend your neighbors (unless it's necessary to offend the neighbors... some neighbors could use a good offense). It's not really all that important that you can chit chat with strangers who you may never see again.
We all have our strengths and we should play to them. Our weaknesses should not define us or our children. If you have horrible handwriting you probably shouldn't be looking for a job doing calligraphy. If greeting the public is hard for you then a career in customer service probably isn't in your future. However, if as you vacuum the carpet you begin speculating about the volume and mass of dust a career in nuclear science may be in your future. There are always tradeoffs.
2 comments:
While I still believe in AS as a disorder/disability, I completely agree with the rest of your thoughts.
J being "normal" wouldn't be J at all. He is who he is and, minus the fit throwing, I like who he is. And he's going to do Big Things.
I tend to think of AS along the lines of missing a left arm or hand or fingers (depending on severity). I guess I should include right arms for lefties.
You can't get by without a prosthetic, or you can try a prosthetic. You may be better off without it, or you may be able to cope with a few things better with it. Either way, you don't have a "real" left arm, but you can still do just about anything you set your mind to.
Does that make any sense, or am I just being weird again?
Ugh. That should have been "You CAN get by without..."
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