Recently I keep asking myself this question, why do I still try (to help SS)?

SS13 is on ASD spectrum and also has ADHD. I don't want to lie about it even if that makes me sound like a horrible person, but it is mostly unenjoyable when he's around (and he's always around-not his fault except the times he eavesdrops). 

SS13 is always eavesdropping. It's annoying because when we call his name he rarely hears it, but when the conversation doesn't involve him he seems to hear every single word and always eager to chim in (but we don't need it!) even after we ask him to leave.

It doesn't matter how many times we told him to stop doing this because we really do not appreciate the behavior. He insists it's all "just conincident" (yea, right, like ten times a day).

... just need my StepTalk peeps to come march me past the denial (my inner 5 year old still coming up with butterflies & rainbows hopium wishes that this was all a bad nightmare...) and into concrete action toward Freedom from Toxic B.S.

Autistic Ss13 is never the most honest person, it doesn't matter what the stereotype says (e.g. autistic people can't lie). He lies and cries then throws a fit when he's caught and he knows he's lying. I feel there is nothing more we can do to make SS a better human being.

Because SS put 15 minutes on the Microwave to warm up his chicken nuggets.

15 mins would be fine if he was using the regular oven, but not microwave ovens. We all know that but we just can't get this to his head. It obviously didn't help even though the instruction was clear on the chicken nuggets packaging.

My house is now full of smoke and none of us can escape.

I guess I should still be grateful because we are all home and was able to put the fire off (the nuggets were literally on fire). I can't imagine if he's home on his own.

So freaking stressful.

I truly don't know it's a teenager thing or autism thing at this point. DH and I both are exhausted from interactions with SS. 

If you talk nicely to him he would think you're in a play mode and nothing you said matters. If you yell at him you will get his attention and get stuff done but then he'll act like a victim. Neither DH nor I like to yell. I don't really yell but I sure am not the nicest person when talking to SS. 

Haven't been back for a while. Had enough over the summer so DH and I are on the same page that 2 hours a day checking someone's homework is just not good use of our time. We decided SS needs to be the one to care about his own grades, and we can help when he has questions, but HE will be the one to check his own homework.

Recap- SS is High functioning autistic. 

Has been much better than before so far now that we have time for ourselves not fighting with SS over his hw. 

I tried not to complain too much, and kept my mouth shut since summer break started and let DH deal with SS13 most of the time. I can't help today because my eyes are rolling so hard. I feel evil and wicked but again since I didn't make any snarly comments at home..I think I'm entitled to roll my eyes and complain a bit here.

I know it's petty, I'm just not a big fan of putting together a party for SS13, even if it's only virtual. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of celebrating birthdays at all, my own included. To me "being born" is not really an achievement of the baby but the mom's (but no, I'm not celebrating for BM in this case)...that's off topic anyway. I do it for others but I skip my own when I can. (DH is big on celebrating these thing so I don't always get to do that on my own..Not a complain, it's sure a sweet gesture from DH)

Haven't been back for about two weeks. Some updates to my last post: ESY is in SS' IEP, and we should have it happen this year too. The teacher said this year the school district is really tightening up the standard and she didn't think my SS is at risk regressing. (Untrue. He can forget how to add/subtract if not practicing daily--- and once we told the teacher this actually happened, he was put back to ESY again.)