u/boatbby

I was adopted when I was 12 and I’m now 16M. I was in foster care since I was 7 both of my parents were addicts and my mom died to addiction when I was 5 and that led my bio dad down a spiral of depression and more addiction to where I was neglected and then cps then got me and I was place in foster.

I was finally adopted at 12 by my amazing mom whom I love. She’s single and has tried dating every now and then she just hasn’t met the right person. I love her a lot and I’ve been so grateful for her. She was the one to put me in therapy with an adoption specialist therapist too.

I’m having major attachment issues tho. I will be honest I don’t have much memory of my bio parents. Everyone keeps saying oh you were traumatized so I don’t remember it. But if I don’t remember it then why do I have such horrible attachment issues.

I go to in person school and I keep to myself I’m on the swim team I have like a few friends. But when I’m at home I want to be with my mom 24/7. Even doing homework I’ll go to her bed and lay down with her and do it.

When she goes to the store I don’t want her to leave me at the house alone and I feel so sad over it.

For background info I adopted my son when he was 12 and he is now 15. He’s in high school now. The only thing he does in high school is he is on the varsity swim team. I’m very proud of him for finding something he likes to do after being in such a horrible foster care and home situation before.

I officially adopted him and he moved in full time with me July of 2023. He started at our local jr high school in 7th grade and I thought it would take him a little bit to acclimatize and make friends. However he just finished his freshman year and still doesn’t have friends.

I remember asking him in 7th grade if he wanted to invite friends over and he said he didn’t have any close friends like that yet. His teacher said that he was quiet and like to do things on his own. He started swimming and he really liked it and made varsity his freshman year and he starts his sophomore year in a few weeks.

I thought oh great this is perfect for him to make friends. But I was wrong. I would go to swim meets and his team would have time pass time and I could see him sitting by himself while his teammates talk. I can’t necessarily tell if they’re excluding him or if he is excluding himself.

I asked him if he had any friends on the team and he said no they’re all annoying. And then I realized he was just like me in high school..

I didn’t have a lot of friends and I would often eat alone. He told me he eats alone in his teachers room because he likes his history teacher.

And I don’t think he doesn’t have friends because he’s uncool. I’m a younger mom to a teen so I still know and understand the fashion trends. Idk is anyone else’s kid like that

Ive (28M) been with my partner (26 F) for about 2 years now. Shes the sweetest and most amazing awkward girl I know. Shes never had a boyfriend before me and she says it was because of her autism.

We met in med school when she was in dental school and I was in school to be an anesthesiologist. She loves dolls and children’s things like a lot. We do live together and we have an extra room she turned into her craft/doll room. Honestly I’m not going to lie I was a little freaked out at 1st.

I thought it was odd a 20 something year old woman liked toys still. Then she sent me a bunch of stuff on autism and I understand now and I even think some of her dolls are cute. I’ll gladly go doll shopping with her even tho it’s expensive and I end up paying for it.. I love her.

I just realized that this “dream boy” of mine I keep having imaginary conversations with is my imaginary boyfriend.

He’s been around for about a year. I have autism and struggle with dating and making friends. So I’ve made these characters in my life to be my friends and boyfriend

I imagine he takes such good care of me and helps me through my meltdowns and social anxiety. This makes me sad I won’t find someone like him.

I’m sad now :(

So I’m 17F I’ve never had a bf before and have never been on a date.

I’ve been looking into being ace but I need some of ace peoples opinions here. I do have an interest in boys actually a pretty big interest. I find blonde men veryyy attractive and I have a tictok folder of men and relationship texts and stuff.

So it’s not like I hate love/attraction. It’s dates that’s the problem. Now I have autism,ocd,ptsd,severe anxiety and depression. Those disorders caused me to have really low social skills and I struggle to leave the house and have horrible social anxiety.

So I can’t necessarily tell if it’s my social issues or if I just hate dates like dinners, movies, etc. the idea of going on dates absolutely repulses me. I just want someone to cuddle with, makeout with, and call me pretty.

Honestly, though the idea of being a virgin forever, it doesn’t sound that bad to me. I’d be okay with cuddling and making out for the rest of my life. But I am still 17 and obviously I don’t have a desire to have sex yet but alot of my friends do.

Now I will say the men I am attracted to are mostly anime men(Nanami,Armin)..ik it’s weird leave me alone but I do ofc have real like crushes (Ryan gosling) just most of them are anime. And you can see a pattern of blondes too

Idk what else to say but maybe it’s not ace or aro maybe it’s just my social skills idk 😭

I made a post a few nights ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/SingleMothersbyChoice/s/Y4clmQd0FV

I talked to him this morning. He said all of his friends are excited to leave home but he’s not he wants to stay with me. I told him that the community college is down the street and he could do that and stay at home with me and he’s liking that idea. He’s also thought about doing swimming in regular college after community college because he could get scholarships and stuff.

I guess his friends had been making fun of him for wanting to go to community college. This kid is seriously the SWEETEST kid ever I swear. He loves his friends and it makes me so sad to see this happening.

I swear some of his friends aren’t my favorite. He does have a few good ones but he’s looking into becoming an engineer for Disney. So hopefully we can figure out this whole college things mamas

Im a younger mom to a teen and I adopted my amazing super sweet son about 4ish years ago. He just turned 17 and he is TALL he’s 6’4 and I’m 5’7 which is taller for a woman.

I honestly love being a single mom. It’s just me and him and I enjoy that. He’s getting ready to leave the nest soon (I hope he stays in town for college) he does swimming for his high school and his still getting adjusted to his new height

He often hits his head on doors or whatever. He came back home after practice and seemed just sad. He never was shy to hide crying from me and I could tell something was wrong so I went to his room and he started crying saying he wished he had me as a mom when he was a baby so I could hold him

I still didn’t know what happened he wouldn’t tell me but that night I *tried* to hold him lol and I asked if he wanted to go to in an out and of course he did.

He’s doing better but I just thought it was a sweet story.

Here’s the last part https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/s/cgtPFh24Cg

So I saw her 2 days ago on the 4th and I felt I could have done better. She was swimming and seemed happy and stuff until it was dark out and they started fireworks. I saw someone on here say autistics don’t like loud stuff. They started and she was like shaking and looked like she was about to cry and was covering her ears and I felt so bad but I genuinely didn’t know how to help and I didn’t want to embarrass her. Thank god one of our friends moms offered her to go inside and to look through the window with one of her friends. I think she has ptsd too? But yeah I feel bad I didn’t do anything I just didn’t know how to help

Here’s Pt1: https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/s/MfUeFzApa3

I (17M) saw her last night with some of our friends and she was her usual self. Sitting away from everyone on her phone with her AirPods in (nothing new) however our friend group is decently big and if you know anything about teenage friend groups, then you would know that big Friend groups kind of have a mini friend groups inside of each other. So me and my close friends were sitting and she was just alone even though she has her own mini friend group I felt bad. It was a pool party but late at night so the sun was setting and some annoying person we all hate was there for some reason and decided to roll in (yes ROLL IN like on wheels) a big ass speaker and put it right next to her and play SUPER loud music (also horrible music) and she didn’t notice and it started playing out of nowhere and spooked her and she ran into the house and hid behind the sofa. People started to ask where she was and we couldn’t find her for a bit. We found her but she said she doesn’t want to go outside and I asked why and she said the music is just too loud I wanna stay in. So I asked if they could turn it down and they did so she went outside. Also idk if it’s related but I did see her steal food..? I could be wrong but she brought a tote bag and when no one was looking she filled it with bags of chips and sodas. So Everyone gave me good advice about autism and I didn’t even think about half the things on the lists people gave me. So I see her again on the 4th at a party so I’ll update. Then if there’s anything I did wrong I could’ve done better. Please let me know.

I don’t have autism. I like this girl in my friend group. She’s super pretty and sweet. Shes also extremely shy and quiet and super awkward. She mentioned she was autistic and I don’t understand what that means honestly..but I think some of the things she does might be related to it. She’s almost 17 and still really likes dolls and toys. I don’t know if she plays with them, but she definitely really likes them and from my perspective it look like she thinks of them as her friends almost. She even brought a Barbie doll one time to a pool party. If that’s something she’s into that’s fine but some other people have made fun of her like backhanded compliments in a way but she doesn’t seem to pick up on them. I think collecting them as normal, but I feel kind of bad if she thinks of them as her friends because she has all of us, but she chooses to kind of sit by herself. She does online school now but used to go to school with all of us for two years but she still hangs out with all of us. She really doesn’t leave the house that often and is super shy and awkward. She pretty behind socially wise and hates like hates loud noise (idek if that’s related) she doesn’t seem like she has the best home life i think her dad used to verbally abuse her or something like that? I think she’s pretty cool and actually super interesting so if anyone can give me some advice so I can maybe understand?