Clear your plate!

One of the many balancing acts that parents face when raising kids who are atypical is how much they are truly capable of. Most kids with RS learn early on that they are occasionally able to use their diagnosis to their benefit.

When Abby started school it took her less than a month to discover that if she wanted out of an assignment she could claim to be tired and voila, excuse given. She has used this to her advantage many times over. 

Here at home we are wise to her game. That being said we walk the tightrope between what chores a typical kid can do and what she can handle. Take for example doing dishes after dinner. Grace can clear all of the dishes, put things in the fridge, load the dishwasher, wipe the table and clean around and under the table. Abby struggles with some of it. Clearing dishes means falls (and spilling). Loading the dishwasher means dropping dishes. So the struggle is do we have her do the work so she learns or do we avoid potential falls, messes and broken dishes?

We have opted to push her. It's messy and frustrating but later on I think it will pay off. Plus she can never accuse us of treating her different than her sister. 

We have similar struggles with dressing herself, putting on coats and hats, folding laundry, buckling her seatbelt and many others. While it would be way easier for all of us (right now) to do it for her I don't think it would help her in the long run. 

Posted by Kristen Fescoe