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Problems Getting Up In The Morning: Help for Aspergers and HFA Teens

Hello Mark,

I recently purchased your eBook "Launching Adult Children w/Aspergers" ...It's nicely laid out/a very useful tool indeed! I do have a question for you:

My son and I had a heart-to-heart conversation last night, as a result of getting into an altercation with him one morning. I'm beginning to understand his thoughts/ways more and more. I realize that 'patience' is a must and as you stated it is important to keep one thing at the fore-front of our minds...."Everyone has good intentions!" These kids do not do things to deliberately send our emotions reeling/upset us. With all of that said, my son has great difficulty getting up on time in the morning and as a result he doesn't get to eat breakfast and prepare his lunch before departing. As a Mom I get upset w/him, concerned about his well-being; he is quite thin to begin with. He told me last night that he doesn't want any help from us that he has to be the one to solve his own problem. I was actually shocked w/what he said, however, my concern is that he will not get up for school or will miss the bus, which would not make for a good morning/I would end up being late for work. I will obviously respect his wishes/not interfere, however, my intuition tells me that he will not wake up on time and actually be missing the bus. What course of action would I then take, assuming his best efforts result in failure? I do not want to get confrontational with my son and do more harm. How can I motivate him to get up if he doesn't wake up with the alarm clock going off...??

Do I take away his IPOD/DS Game/TV privileges for an indefinite period of time...? Appreciate your thoughts on the matter. Thanks! L.


Click here for my response...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

Hey guys this is really great! I'm saving this. I'm 37 about to be diagnosed and a mother of two. For the life of me I can't seem to get out of bed in the am. I'm that kid your taking about all grown up, except no one knew I fall in the spectrum. Not even me. It never changed for me, I'm still late for everything. Your son will improve after puberty as long as his environment allows him. To be honest my mom had been helping me lately do my daughter isn't late for the bus. I'm 37. Anyway I just came across something, thought I'd share. The sonic boom! It's an alarm clock, 113db and it shakes your bed. I read the reviews and it sounds great. I ordered one on Amazon. Good luck, as a an autistic and a mom to a mom, it's not his fault it's OK to not be mad. We really want to get up and really do have those really good intentions. And we hate when we disappoint you. Your son's totally right, while he's with you help him with that AWESOME list the person before me left. But let him get up on his own. Today he only has to worry about himself but one day he'll likely have a family. So mom give him the tools so he can make his own changes so he can be the person he wants to be for that family down the road. Your awesome, wish my mom would have listened like you did. Good job!

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