Well, things seem to go from bad to worse always at times when I need peace & quiet. KK has been having rough times since about November ... well, that much is par for the course. He always has rough times during the winter. It's just that this time I'm having trouble deciding what is hormone/teenage issues and what is manipulation, and what is autism. It's not easy to tell the difference.

He's been refusing to do homework and has the patience of Job to be able to sit at his computer desk and not do a single thing for hours on end rather than give in to the requirement to do his school work. What's so strange is that it isn't because he doesn't like doing his schoolwork. He says its because he doesn't want to do what anyone tells him to do. WOW! Ok, let's see, if I tried that at the age of 57 .. nahhh ... wouldn't get paid for anything, wouldn't have friends, wouldn't get along with my husband ... I can think of lots of reasons why doing what someone else is asking KK to do will be a life-long struggle unless I'm able to change this attitude barrier.

Then, the other major problem is his lack of willingness to accept boundaries. Simple ones ... like that belongs to someone else,you can't just take it home. We've had problems with that at church, at home, at stores, everywhere we could imagine going. It's so bad right now that I'm going to have to stay home from church for as long as I can see in the future, except for when I go to Deaf Church (since that's in a very contained environment) because the last two months KK has brought things home from the classroom that our study group meets in which belong to students who attend the school. Unfortunately, I don't discover them in KK's room for several weeks. I feel sorry for the students who are missing their personal belongings that they need to do their schoolwork. I also feel sorry that KK doesn't seem to make the connection that he wouldn't like it if someone did that to him.

He managed to convince the psychologist that it was hormonal last time we met with her. He had a screaming, temper-tantrum in her office. He managed to get her to believe it was because he was hungry. Oh, but he had a large breakfast and had refused to eat any more at breakfast time (which for him that day hadn't ended until almost 10 am). This was only 1:30pm and he was telling the psychologist that I should have let him eat 2 hours after he finished his breakfast because he was too hungry to obey. Funny thing, even after she gave him a pack of cheese crackers, he didn't decide he needed to eat it until about 4pm which only spoiled his idea of eating supper.

What's this weekend been like??? Let's see ... he was a very good young man in study time & church time. I was very proud of him. Then we gave him his noon medications and he ate lunch (without any desert). About 20 minutes later he was yelling & screaming at us because we wouldn't let him go wherever he wanted at the church (which I don't feel comfortable doing since he's taken so many things lately). We were infringing on his rights. He finished his lunch about 3pm & after he finally calmed down enough to get him to the car, took him home & put him to bed.

This morning things are not perfect, but better, but I'm not giving him his noon medications today ... hoping things will remain calm & obedient. I'm getting too old to handle the screaming matches on a daily basis! Oh well ... this is just typical winter-itis! (or is it teenage hormones??? or is it really just plain disobedience???)

That's enough for today.