Picking My Battles

I have this Autism Parenting gig boiled down to three basic concepts:

1)  Pick your battles.
2)  Trust your gut.
3)  Screw Dr. Phil.

Every day my son makes a plan.  Actually, it’s more of a legally-binding contract than a plan.  The plan includes a list of mundane activities that he agrees to take part in (like going to school), a list of activities he agrees to avoid (like biting the teacher) and a payoff… a reward… a BRIBE.  These days that bribe usually involves a trip to BJ’s, Toys R Us or the Disney Store to buy two Cars figurines that he never really plays with to add to a collection that has been completed 12 times over. 

Well-meaning experts will tell me that is poor parenting…. a waste of money… spoiling my child.  Well-meaning experts are probably right. 
Well-meaning experts can bite me. 

You know why?  Because we are one month into this new school year and the reports about his behavior and mood at school have been gushing.  His temper tantrums and violent outbursts at school have all but been extinguished.  Part of it is maturity.  Part of it is a skilled and patient teaching staff.  Most of it is plain old-fashioned motivation. 

I finally have the ability to motivate my son with a future reward.  And, conversely, I now have the ability to punish him with denying him that future reward.  That ability eluded me for 10 years because he just couldn’t grasp the concepts. 

And I’m milking it for everything it’s worth. 

Yesterday I wrote about “Getting To That Other Stuff Later.”  File this under that category.  For now, I’ll deal with the $6 per day Cars addiction and odd glances from the overly perky Disney Store clerks. 

Does anybody need a few hundred Lightning McQueens?