Thursday, April 16, 2009

Review Your Rules


Yo! Mick here, the one with pointy ears and canine grin!

Thank you well wishers!

I am feeling better and Red’s (aham) out of the doghouse (sorry – I know that was a cheap shot but hey – pull my paw if you don’t like it).


Red earned back half of his two-week sentence by being a good sport and behaving himself while grounded. Go figure – he choose to have the weekends for his reprieve and being grounded on school days!


Red is one smart kid!


I’m sure not going to complain about it because I had a lot of time with him. Without the distractions of TV or games, Red took me on several walks a day.


While I’m not advocating that he get into trouble again – I sure had a good week and then some! Many of those good habits have stuck with him.

I believe habits, daily rituals and those autism rules can be a really good thing or a really bad thing.

I was woofing it up with another acquaintance with autism this week who was not having such a good time. It seems some of his “rules” were not serving his greater good and were actually keeping him from making and keeping friends.


Kids with autism often have a lot of rules.

I’ve cautioned Red before (and will probably have to many more times) about rules – Rules have got to serve you not the other way around.

This poor kid had himself backed into a very lonely corner because one of his rules is, “if someone is mean to me I have to be mean to them back”.

Well, you can just imagine what THAT rule does for his social life!

Sadly, it was his self-esteem and self-loathing that had him so far down in the dumps. Any lower and his ears would drag more than Betty Basset’s.


He’s not a cruel person in his heart - its just his autism rules that drive his choices in behavior that make him appear mean or just plain too scary to hang with.


He and I spoke for quite some time about autism and my number one rule but I’m not sure I could help him.


He’s still rather attached to that rule even knowing that it ultimately doesn’t serve him. Maybe he just needs time to process the possibilities my number one rule has.


My number one rule is quite simple – Here’s my number one, most important rule: I only have rules that serve me and help me grow as a loving soul.


OK – Mum says its bedtime – woof out mates!