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SS14's VERY Literal Autistic Brain

Pecanflower's picture

Last night was DH's night to get the hell out of the house to have some "me" time. So, SS14 and I were hanging out at the house doing our thing. After he did all of his chores he got to have some computer time.

LIFE LESSON TIME: when you have a VERY literal autistic son who is obsessed with the possibility of the apocalypse happening letting him find an article about The Doomsday Clock on the internet is NOT a good idea. I spent way too much time explaining to him that it was a concept measuring tension in the world and not an actual countdown to a dropping of a nuclear bomb. Bless his Literal Brain!

Then, when DH texted me asking how it was going..I told him SS14 found DoomsDay Clock and I was trying to calm him. DH was freaking because he had never heard of the Doomsday Clock.

I had TWO literal autistic brains to calm. One was easier than the other. I told DH to look it up on his phone right now and chill the F out. He was surrounded by a bunch of guys who could explain it to him. I had a kid to deal with.

Finally got Kiddo to realize that a bomb was not going to drop on Washington DC at 2 1/2 minutes to midnight that it was like saying the terror alert level is an orange or a red or whatever. He understood it when I related it to color (abstract) and not time (specific).

Whew. Then we spent the rest of the night watching sitcoms.

Comments

BethAnne's picture

Good parenting skills there, well done! I can imagine how freaked out he would have been thinking that it was literal, I am glad that you were able to find a way to reassure him.

MelAnn's picture

I appreciate this so much. We have tons of like stories in our house as well as my 10 year old son is on the spectrum too. And for you to 'get' him and have the patience to handle the potential meltdown - you're wonderful!!!

Lit'l Bit's picture

It doesn't go away with age...my 18 High Functioning Spectrum kid has all kinds of doomsdays attack ideas. Sometimes it's on a weekly basis where he wants to buy bug out crap or where he thinks he needs to make weapons. It is very tiring. Once they hyper focus on something its hard to bring them down.