Monday 21 December 2015

An Aspergers Christmas #2

Christmas spoiler #2
Ethan had been home from work for about twenty minutes and seemed in quite good spirits. I took my chance to get him involved in the general merriment of Christmas by asking him to help the kids decorate their Christmas gingerbread house while I made tea. His intentions were great. He decided to up the festive mood by playing some Christmas music from the computer through the TV while they did it. However, by the third round of ‘Never do the tango with an Eskimo,’ it was clear something wasn't quite working! The problem of why the album wouldn’t move past track one became all-encompassing to Ethan. He became glued to his iPhone and the TV remote trying to sort it out whilst the kids got increasingly frustrated and impatient waiting to create their house. I got increasingly frustrated and impatient waiting for them to create their house. Any plea for Ethan to come off his phone, forget the music and help the kids with the gingerbread house were ignored or met with irritation. The kids didn't care about the bloody music; they just wanted to stick jelly tots onto an erected house. I didn't care about the bloody music; I just wanted Ethan to be the one to do this activity with them as I’d been with them all day and was trying to make tea. But Ethan continued to shut us all out and fiddle with his phone. Eventually, grumpy & minus music, he made a start on the house but wouldn’t let the kids near it and insisted that it must look exactly like the picture on the box (which he misinterpreted anyway).  I lost my rag, shouted, grabbed the bits of house off him and did it myself. He walked away, the dinner burnt. The ironic thing was that, what could have been a lovely, jolly time was ruined by Ethan trying to make it a lovely, jolly time and getting angry when the jolliness wasn’t exactly the way he'd planned! That famous Asperger inability to adapt or prioritise doesn't take a break for Christmas!

Christmas blessing?
He did come to say sorry afterwards. Even apologised to the kids.

Small steps…!

Merry Christmas.

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