I Can't

  Does anyone else have a child whose first response to everything is 'I can't'? I struggle with this since I am a very Can Do type of person. Heck, last Saturday I took a woman's self defense class and for 2 hours I beat the living daylights out of bags, pads, and instructors. I learned to throw a much larger person off of on top of me if they managed to get me to the ground. Never sis I say I Can't. Instead, I said, 'No guts, no glory' and ended up a sore, sweaty mess, but very happy.

  Ahren approaches everything cautiously. I am not sure if it is because a lot of things are difficult for him, or if that is just his personality. Put on your shoes...I can't. Wipe yourself....I can't. Open this pack of crackers.....I can't. What really amazes me is that he is also a master manipulator. He bats those big eyes and smiles his sweet shy smile and people do anything for him. At the neighborhood Christmas party he had two women making his ornaments for him. All the other kids had to make their own! That made me laugh. But still, he is off to school this fall and how is he going to manage? I will have to have a talk with the teacher ahead of time. Not to tell her to help him, but the opposite. Make him do things for himself. He is perfectly capable of slipping his shoes on and off, etc. If his teacher helps him he will never want to try for himself.

  I recently learned that he is quite capable of eating some foods that he had been avoiding for some time. He would not eat anything he had to really chew. Meat or chewy candy, anything needing chewing. Nope. Nada. Couldn't. Then we saw the speech pathologist and started work on improving his speech and chewing/swallowing and miraculously, he could do it for her! He still struggled a bit. Beef jerky is still beyond him, but raw carrots and apples are a go. I think the master manipulator got me. I felt sorry for him so I gave him the soft food choices he wanted instead of challenging him. I was worried he would choke. Oh well, I know the heimlich. No guts, no glory.