Friday 1 March 2013

Asperger's, selfishness and men!

Sunday's resolve to criticise less, hold my tongue and see the amazing results lasted until Monday.
When Ethan came home with an iPad.
A week earlier we'd had a discussion that went something like this:
Ethan: Do you think we should get an iPad.
Me: Absolutely not. Why do we need one.
Ethan: So we can just quickly look on the Internet or send an email without having to boot up the computer.
Me: We can do that on our iPhones (we have one each)
Ethan: hmmm.
And I thought that was the end of it. Add to that discussion the fact that we're totally skint, it's all 3 of our kids birthdays next month and that, a day earlier, Ethan had said we needed to do our shopping at Aldi to try and curb our spending.
The next day he comes home having spent £200 on an iPad. Yes, I know that's a good price for an iPad - that's Ethan's argument, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. BUT WE DON'T NEED ONE. AND WE CAN'T AFFORD £200.
I really did let rip. For the whole of that day. I didn't just stop at the extravagant, irresponsible and selfish purchase of the iPad. I brought up the thousands of pounds that have been spent on TVs, Blu Ray players, new down-lights for the entire house (to replace the perfectly good down-lights we already had), etc,etc over the last few months. Are you getting an inkling of what Ethan's special interest might be?!
I couldn't help myself. It's really frustrating that, one day he can be telling me I can't buy food for our family to eat because we have no money and the next he's spending £200 on something that we don't need and that only he wants.
Maybe it's partly a man thing. My friend was telling me yesterday (as I complained and vented about Ethan) that she had to persuade her husband not to spend £15,000 on a flashy new car but, instead, to spend £7,000 on a sensible car that would get the family around.
So maybe this isn't a blog post about Asperger's but, rather, a blog post about men!
In the meantime, the log burner that I've been wanting for the last couple of years, has been delayed once again because Ethan's spent all our money.
I don't know whether one of the symptoms of Asperger's is completely selfish behaviour - but I hope it is. So that I can at least partly put Ethan's behaviour down to the way his brain is wired and not just because he's a tw*t.
On a positive note, 'cos I feel it's been a bit of a gloomy blog, Oliver's made it through a whole week of pre-school without crying when I leave, Sam got a Praise Certificate for being so knowledgeable on dinosaurs (so proud!) and Ava moved up a level in swimming (so we're one step nearer to being able to knock it on the head and be £5.50 better off each week!). And I made three pretty acceptable World Book Day costumes (we're doing it a bit early at the kids' school this year). Even if they were a bit squished by the time we got to school and we were late so nobody saw them, and Sam refused to wear his hat made from a bin.

1 comment:

  1. The more I read your blog, the more glad I am I found you. And you seem like a super mom!

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