3 posts tagged “growing”

Some of you may have noticed that Suncatcher Eyes are no longer on Ebay, at least not as big a presence as they once were.  Ebay's new pricing changes helped me to make the decision to leave that venue.  But Suncatcher Eyes will still be on Etsy and the SE website.  I'll never leave Etsy... it's were Suncatcher Eyes were born after all.

Business Update:  On Monday, I have an appointment with a small business association.  Basically, my business has become successful beyond what I could have hoped and I'm scared.  Now comes the real nitty-gritty stuff like accounting, taxes, a business plan (ugh), applying for business grants, and all that other fun stuff.  There is so much to consider:  Health insurance, business insurance,  what kind of salary do I pay myself, how much do I spend on advertising, and all that stuff.  My company is still really tiny, so a lot of this stuff will come later.  But they are all things I'm beginning to worry about and will have to prepare for in the future.  It's all so overwhelming and confusing.

Every day I have to walk a very fine line with my almost 17-year-old son.  It's the line between supporting my child's independence and self-esteem versus wanting to give him the help I think he needs (in other words, keeping my big mouth shut).

My son has trouble with conceptual thinking and logic because of his autism.  But on the other hand, he wants very badly to become independent.  He also thinks he has the ability to do anything, even if he's never tried it before.

Unfortunately, the conceptual and logical thinking difficulties get in the way.  Which is why I don't have any speakers connected to my computer right now.  He thought one looked loose and tried to fix it.  Yeah, didn't work.  But on the other hand, he was able to fix the belt on the riding lawnmower.

He can't tell when someone is joking with him, making fun of him, or outright using him.  He once took a $50 bill from my purse so he could buy cookies for all of his friends... in junior high.

Unfortunately, because he is so accepting of people, most of his friends are troubled kids.  I think some of them just appreciate the fact that he accepts them, but others are out to use him.  Last summer, he went for a bike ride with a friend.  He had a good time, up until his "friend" somehow removed the tires from his bike and left him stranded.  Thank goodness I got the kid a cell phone.  But the most difficult part of this was trying to explain to him that his friend wasn't being nice leaving him there with a broken bike.  He wants so badly to fit in that he always gives other kids the benefit of the doubt, and I end up being the bad guy because I have to try to get him to understand what happened.

The other problem is not understanding consequences of his actions.  He rides his bike so far that he's too overheated and tired to ride home.  I mean 8-10 miles, sometimes into the next town.  We've had talk after talk about this.  The last time he did it, I told him that it was his responsibility to get home.  Silly me.  I forgot he takes everything I say literally.  I meant that he would have to ride his bike home.  He took that to mean don't call me for a ride home, so he asked some neighbors of a friend of his for a ride home.  Yes, strangers.  He lost his bike privileges and was grounded.  We sat down and had another long talk after that one.  He tried to understand, but he really doesn't get it.  He has never met strangers who are not nice, so to him they are all nice.

Now we're facing even scarier situations.  His friends can drive.  He's getting older, almost an adult.  He wants to do the things his friends are doing, like getting a job, going to college, etc.

I am facing difficult choices in the near future.  The reality of my son's disability is that he is barely capable of taking care of himself, let alone working.  But on the other hand, I have to support his self-esteem and independence.

We've talked about different community programs that are available for teens with disabilities, but he isn't interested.   Maybe with time, I don't know.

Eventually I will have to decide whether I need to file for guardianship of him.  That way at least I would know that his health is taken care of, as well as his bills and legal issues.

It sure ain't easy.

My youngest son thinks he should be able to stay up as late as he wants.  He's in the "treat me like an adult.. hey, wait, I don't want responsibility" phase.

Because of his Klinefelter syndrome, he takes medicine at night to help him sleep. The stubborn little (bleep) is actually forcing himself to stay awake over two hours after taking his medicine.  So every day for the past week, he's been cranky and irritable, and so have the rest of us.  Unfortunately I have that mom thing where I can't go to sleep until he does.  So we've all been up until about 1 in the morning each night.

Our whole family requires a lot of sleep.  I'm talking at least 10 hours or I feel like crap.  We normally go to bed around 10.

Last night he was up until after 1 a.m. again, so today he learns a lesson about consequences.  I'm not going to wake him up.  I hope he sleeps until 4 in the afternoon.  He hates sleeping late (insert evil laugh here).

The best part?  I get a whole day without a teenager!