The other thing that happens when you have a child or rather children with learning difficulties is that you find out that lots of other children have difficulties too. Suddenly your conversations about interesting topics cease and you become a walking talking advoctae of all thigs with TLAs ( three letter abbreviations) like ASD , SpLD ( suppose that's 4 really) ADD etc etc with an encylopeadic knowledge of resources, blogs, websites and self help manuals. I have a bookshelf that groans under the weight of books on anything to do with learning difficulties. Which is why I've decided to write one of my own but this one will have the sub-title "Tell it Like It Is' rather than the '101 ways to combat dyslexia' variety. Just spent an hour on the phone with another mother whose son has recently been diagnosed with Aspergers and I can almost feel the pain in her voice. I know what lies ahead for her.

School holidays. If you were to believe half the mothers round here you'd think that the whole of Teddington was jetting off to the Maldives for a month. They probably are. Money does buy you options...like staying in a 5 star hotel on some island paradise where the most taxing chore of the day is tying to decide what to choose from the a la carte menu every evening. Their kids are probably learning how to sail a yacht single handed whilst mine are out in the scrubby back garden calling each other pooh head and butt face. No sign of DH this evening. Who can blame him. Given the choice what would you rather do - come home to a couple of bickering cranky kids, unload the dishwasher and be kept awake by everyone else's 'having a good time of a summer evening' type laughter or staye out and go boozing with attractive young people in some bar up in town ? No brainer really.
Finding Theo's behaviour challenging to say the least.