The title of this blog pretty much says it all.

My little baby boy who was so dependant on me, that I could know what was wrong, what he needed, what he wanted, what he was thinking 48 hours before it happened, before he asked me, before he was even thinking it, is now becoming independent.

I watched him peel an orange today all by himself. To most, this is not a big deal, to me, it’s huge!

Actually, now that I think about it, he’s reached into the cabinet above the refrigerator to grab batteries to replace in his Wii remote whenever they die and put the batteries in himself. He also brings dishes from his room to the kitchen and washes his hands after eating without prompt. Independency!

Independency used to be very scary word for me. (And sometimes it is still a very scary word to me.)

All my life I have been dependant on someone else. First it was my parents, then boyfriends, then my ex husband, and now I’m all on my own. I have had to do things on my own now that I never had to do before like budgeting, paying bills, grocery shopping, the list goes on. It’s not like I didn’t know how to do them, I just didn’t need to before.

But every day I am learning more and more how to be independent and letting (attempting at least) to let Bryce be more independent (although he will always be my little baby boy.)

I think it’s important for Bryce to be more independent. He’s thirtreen years old now, going into high school (grade 9) next year, and the phrase ‘be independent’ gets tossed around every workshop, every seminar, every group, every forum, every person I’ve talked to about children with autism, sorry, teenagers with autism going to high school.

I guess we all have to learn how to peel an orange sometime, eh?

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya