Banging your head against a brick wall is a symptom of Aspergers syndrome...

Hi,
Some of us have kids, this is a statistical fact. That is where the problem starts.

Kids are a problem for society, it appears, because they have needs and yet produce nothing (except crowds of bored teenagers on a Saturday outside Burger King and badly executed graffiti).

It appears that the producers of kids, or "Parents" are a whinging bunch who will try to get preferential treatment for their mewling brats, costing the Government loads of cash, and being all difficult around the place. Demanding things like schools that teach, and food that isn't full of chemistry.

I don't know, some people!

Even more difficult are Parents of 'special needs' kids, demanding ramps and such. Why can't the lazy buggers carry their kids? Once they get to big, put them in a home or hospital!

Are there no workhouses?

Even worse are the kids that look normal, but are not. Kids like Ieuan, my son. Ieuan has Aspergers syndrome. Apparently, so do I, which explains a lot. Like how I could read Shakespeare at 3, but am unable to spell 'thier'. No matter how often that little red line appears, I never get the I and E the right way around.

Also explains why my school days were so miserable. An Aspergers kid in a class full of working class Welsh is like blood in the water. I had a torrid time. I don't want the same for Ieuan.

So, against my gut feeling, I enrolled him in a 'special unit' Initially things looked good, he was sent to mainstream class for Maths, where he excelled, and then went back to his base class to keep in a calm atmosphere. However over the last year, they have not done this, because they don't have the staff. Hence he is bored.

However, he is 13, and has to go to High School. His School has no place for him in their unit, so they want to keep him back. I don't think this is a good idea at all.

Aspergers kids are hyper competitive, but they also benchmark. He sees a class of kids who are (through no fault of their own) no where near the intellectual level that Ieuan is, and he thinks "I am already number 1, why try harder?" This is Ok if you have a career in Apple picking ahead of you, but Ieuan is not becoming an Apple picker unless he has to.

So we have been searching for a school to take him, which may mean that he has to sink or swim. Or we might have to move home. Or get a loan to pay for a Teacher Aide, or Home School Ieuan, or Jacqui might have to work for nothing in the school to release another Teacher Aide.... God knows.

One thing is for certain, I will not allow my Son to have his future prospects ruined by a system that wishes he were more stupid, or less trouble. I won't accept my flesh and blood getting second best because of expediency. Bollocks I will.

I'll go back to Wales first.

What to do with Parents eh? I mean what are kids, except literally the future of humanity.