It's 2022 and after something of a hiatus, I'm back. I figure it's time for an update on who I am and where my family is at.
I'm on the autism spectrum and am in my early 50s. I lived the first 35 years of my life with no knowledge of my place on the spectrum and little understanding of autism. My two sons, both with Asperger's syndrome are now aged 18 and 21. I'm still with my wife of 24 years and I'm still employed full time in the IT section of the financial sector.
I've been blogging on the subject of autism and Asperger's since 2007 and prior to that I was a regular on the WrongPlanet Aspergers forum.
My Eldest
When my eldest son was in school, he was fairly social but not terribly academic. We naturally expected this trend to continue after school. What seems to have happened is exactly the opposite.
Since leaving school my eldest has been employed full time and is doing his second diploma at TAFE. This is great but socially he's struggling. We're finding that like many young adults today, he's addicted to computer games. COVID hasn't helped either, it's made many kids too scared to go out.
I wonder if as parents, we focused too much on helping him to develop his weaker side and neglected his stronger traits. My plan for this year is to see if we can work on the social side.
My Youngest
My youngest is the opposite. At school, we weren't too worried about academic progress but we were worried about his social skills. This completely turned around in his last couple of years at school and now he has a good life outside of school.
He finished his schooling in December last year, so our focus will be on post-school academics and work.
As with my eldest, this is the opposite scenario to what we anticipated. It's a strange situation to be in.
Overall
2021 was an incredibly difficult year for us as, I know, it was for many other people too. I guess that now it's time for us to pick up the pieces and find ourselves again.
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