The worst thing so far has been not knowing what he understands about this move.
And, also, knowing I could have prepared him better. I did not because I didn’t want to make him anxious. Unsaid: I didn’t want to have another six months of his aggressive behavior like last year when he first found out he was going to camp. You tell him early and he obsesses for months. Well, maybe I should have let him obsess so that he could now deal better.<\/p>\n
The best thing so far is the freedom I have. There, I said it. The staff in charge got on the phone and I told her that Nat did not seem happy with the television program and that he needs to be asked what he wants to do, preferably given a choice of a few things. Otherwise he’ll just default to whatever is easiest, whatever is in the room.<\/p>\n “Okay, thanks,” she said. “I’ll let everyone know that’s what they should do with him.”<\/p>\n I called back, and I heard from the staff that he was watching Mary Poppins.<\/span> And I realized I felt a little bit the way I do when I bug Max to go and tell a teacher he needs a way to get Extra Credit, to improve his grade. “Max, you can ask. You can always ask.” I am going to see him today, right after he has art. And, he is coming home Saturday afternoon so that he can go to social group on Sunday. That’s what he talks about on the phone. That, and what he is doing at the House. He seems more able to articulate what he is doing and what he wants to do. Maybe, in part, because I bugged him. Maybe because I bugged the staff. Maybe not. Whatever, that is a positive change. Already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The worst thing so far has been not knowing what he understands about this move.And, also, knowing I could have prepared him better. I did not because I didn’t want to make him anxious. Unsaid: I didn’t want to have another six months of his aggressive behavior like last year when he first found out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-7i","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
And, also, there is a glimmer of a new connection we have, I call it the Nagging Connection. By this I mean where I nag him to get help. He told me the other day he was watching TV. His voice broke. He was sad. I knew this meant he was just watching what was on, what others there were watching. I told him, “Nat! You can watch one of the movies you brought. But you have to tell someone.”
Immediately he told me, bless his literal heart: “Want to watch a movie.”
“No, Nat, you have to tell one of the teachers there.”<\/span>
Very softly, turning in the direction of the others: “Want to watch a movie.”
“No! Nat, say it loudly. Go tell someone. Now!”<\/p>\n
“Yeah, but — “
“But what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Max, you can always at least try.”
Silence.
He didn’t ask. He didn’t get an A.
At least Nat asks!<\/p>\n