u/Plus_Today_2822

Hello, me (40M) and my wife (37F) have a 15 year old son who’s on the spectrum. He has what used to be called Asperger’s, but now is called Level 1. He’s our only child and he truly is the light of our lives. He’s shy, sweet, innocent; he has a pure heart, and he loves us like crazy.

Long story short, we’re attached to the hip.

But he’s not just that: he’s also a very gifted fella, who even got to skip a grade at school, with a passion for music and, specially, dance (ballet) and gymnastics. And he’s damn good at all that.

But no one ever sees that, apparently, because he has been suffering bullying at school for years and he doesn’t have more than 1 or 2 friends (hence why he’s so attached to us). Same thing with my nephews…
The other day we were at my wife’s brother’s place. They have a very nice garden and pool, so they invited us to spend the day. My son (whom we lovingly call Mausy) was excited to go, because he wanted to spend some time with his cousins, and both me and my wife were too, because London gets warm in the summer.
So, basically, we get there and kind of introduce Mausy to his cousins (they hadn’t seen each other in a while) and then sit down to drink something while my nephews (14 and 11) played in the pool. My son stayed with us for a bit, because he was feeling a bit shy, but then we encouraged him to go play and he did.

He got in the pool and immediately, the eldest boy started commenting on his body. My son has some allergies and he’s kinda picky, so he’s a bit underweight, but he also has good muscles from sports. My nephew was commenting on all this in a pretty hostile way, but Mausy let that slide and continued trying to be friendly. He starts swimming around, and, once again, his cousins think it’s the funniest thing ever. Then they start playing a ball game and my kid gets suspiciously hit with the ball more often than any of them. At this point, I’m pissed, so I ask him if he wants something to drink and he says yes, so he has an excuse to come sit with us. Meanwhile, my nephews are still in the pool, looking at him from time to time and giggling.

He didn’t go back in the pool.

I pulled my wife to the side and asked her if she was seeing what I was seeing, and she said yes. I told her to go say something to her brother about his kids behaviour, and she did, but her brother just said something along the lines of “boys will be boys/ he needs to toughen up”. They didn’t stop after that, and any other family gatherings haven’t been any better.

I’m incredibly pissed and feel really bad for my boy. I adore him and he deserves nothing but the best.

What do I do now? I want to have a word with my nephews but, should I? Would that make things worse? Any help is appreciated.

Hello, me (40M) and my wife (37F) have a 15 year old son who’s on the spectrum. He has what used to be called Asperger’s, but now is called Level 1. He’s our only child and he truly is the light of our lives. He’s shy, sweet, innocent; he has a pure heart, and he loves us like crazy.

Long story short, we’re attached to the hip.

But he’s not just that: he’s also a very gifted fella, who even got to skip a grade at school, with a passion for music and, specially, dance (ballet) and gymnastics. And he’s damn good at all that.

But no one ever sees that, apparently, because he has been suffering bullying at school for years and he doesn’t have more than 1 or 2 friends (hence why he’s so attached to us). Same thing with my nephews…
The other day we were at my wife’s brother’s place. They have a very nice garden and pool, so they invited us to spend the day. My son (whom we lovingly call Mausy) was excited to go, because he wanted to spend some time with his cousins, and both me and my wife were too, because London gets warm in the summer.
So, basically, we get there and kind of introduce Mausy to his cousins (they hadn’t seen each other in a while) and then sit down to drink something while my nephews (14 and 11) played in the pool. My son stayed with us for a bit, because he was feeling a bit shy, but then we encouraged him to go play and he did.

He got in the pool and immediately, the eldest boy started commenting on his body. My son has some allergies and he’s kinda picky, so he’s a bit underweight, but he also has good muscles from sports. My nephew was commenting on all this in a pretty hostile way, but Mausy let that slide and continued trying to be friendly. He starts swimming around, and, once again, his cousins think it’s the funniest thing ever. Then they start playing a ball game and my kid gets suspiciously hit with the ball more often than any of them. At this point, I’m pissed, so I ask him if he wants something to drink and he says yes, so he has an excuse to come sit with us. Meanwhile, my nephews are still in the pool, looking at him from time to time and giggling.

He didn’t go back in the pool.

I pulled my wife to the side and asked her if she was seeing what I was seeing, and she said yes. I told her to go say something to her brother about his kids behaviour, and she did, but her brother just said something along the lines of “boys will be boys/ he needs to toughen up”. They didn’t stop after that, and any other family gatherings haven’t been any better.

I’m incredibly pissed and feel really bad for my boy. I adore him and he deserves nothing but the best.

What do I do now? I want to have a word with my nephews but, should I? Would that make things worse? Any help is appreciated.

Hello, so my grandma (81) has always been a very special lady; she has two university degrees (law and political science), a whole PhD and has been a professor until recently (she retired because she wanted to, not because she couldn’t work anymore). She has always made all of us laugh because she says odd things, but in a funny way, like, for example, never pronouncing store names or English words correctly. One thing that is very relevant to this story is that she’s half DEAF and can’t hear properly without her hearing aids, which she doesn’t like to wear.
Alright, straight to the point. Ever since I returned from a year abroad, I’ve felt like she has deteriorated; I don’t laugh when she mispronounces words or when she forgets about something anymore, it just worries me now. I feel like these episodes are becoming more frequent, but I don’t know if this is just me being paranoid. The things is that, when she has her hearing aids on and she’s actually invested in a conversation (like today during lunch), she’ll say very knowledgeable things and contribute normally to it, which confuses me even further. I also feel like she’s starting to forget things more often, though that could just be me being paranoid, again. She got angry today over something so dumb as a ceiling fan grandpa was installing, because, apparently, she didn’t like it and she hadn’t agreed to buying that specific model, even though grandpa says they hadn’t concluded anything. She left the car unlocked the other day too.
I’m sorry if this post is not clear, I’m just worried about her, because I do love her.
(PD: both my grandparents look and act incredibly young for their age, have never shown any signs of decline and live completely independently)

Am I just being paranoid? Thanks

Hello, so my grandma (81) has always been a very special lady; she has two university degrees (law and political science), a whole PhD and has been a professor until recently (she retired because she wanted to, not because she couldn’t work anymore). She has always made all of us laugh because she says odd things, but in a funny way, like, for example, never pronouncing store names or English words correctly. One thing that is very relevant to this story is that she’s half DEAF and can’t hear properly without her hearing aids, which she doesn’t like to wear.
Alright, straight to the point. Ever since I returned from a year abroad, I’ve felt like she has deteriorated; I don’t laugh when she mispronounces words or when she forgets about something anymore, it just worries me now. I feel like these episodes are becoming more frequent, but I don’t know if this is just me being paranoid. The things is that, when she has her hearing aids on and she’s actually invested in a conversation (like today during lunch), she’ll say very knowledgeable things and contribute normally to it, which confuses me even further. I also feel like she’s starting to forget things more often, though that could just be me being paranoid, again. She got angry today over something so dumb as a ceiling fan grandpa was installing, because, apparently, she didn’t like it and she hadn’t agreed to buying that specific model, even though grandpa says they hadn’t concluded anything. She left the car unlocked the other day too.
I’m sorry if this post is not clear, I’m just worried about her, because I do love her.
(PD: both my grandparents look and act incredibly young for their age, have never shown any signs of decline and live completely independently)

Am I just being paranoid? Thanks

Gang, as the title says, after 2 years of this bullshit controlling my life, I did it. I quit cold turkey. It is possible, and it feels like I finally got my life back. To be honest, pipsqueak 2 was the push I needed to do it, so, just saying, if you’re addicted like I was, quit now. I’ll never go back; never again.