Anyone else have teenagers living their dream life at the moment?

[Makinganewthinghappen]

My 15 year old is “mid assesments” for autism - my 9 year old is autistic and i am fairly surely that my 15 year old is also. I have other children who are not - so it’s fairly easy to see the difference!

15 year old is already homeschooled because of severe difficulties socially at school but I still drag her out each day to various “socialising” events etc because it feels like the best thing to do.

Dh is in a high risk group and we don’t have a garden or any nearby places to walk so we have literally been in our house constantly for the last week.

My 15 year old has never been happier - she has been doing her school work then sitting quietly alone for the rest of the day - for her this is bliss.

I keep seeing people posting on Facebook etc about how their teenagers are missing friends and wanting to go out etc and it’s making me really sad seeing the contrast with my daughter who literally doesn’t give a shit about seeing either other people and doesn’t really even care about seeing me, dh or her siblings.

I know this is a tiny thing and so many people have worse things to worry about!

But I just wondered if I am the only one with a teenager who is overjoyed by the shutdown?

Both of mine are totally fine. They are very social and like going out with their friends, but they are also totally happy at home.

Ds is 15 and was diagnosed with ASD last year. He has been massively isolated for a long time. His late autism diagnosis has caused significant mental health issues.

I wouldn't say he's living his dream life as he has lots of underlying issues but he's certainly not struggling with the situation. He was shocked with the immediate change in routine but he is no longer dealing with the daily school anxiety.

He is in gcse year so everything changed quite dramatically for him last week. He has been a nightmare with revision as he sees home as his safe space and doesn't like to bring anything school related into this environment. I'm glad we don't have to revise with him as nothing would be getting done.

At the moment the situation we find ourselves in is his normal life. He has been isolated for years and will still be isolated when everyone else is back to some kind of normalily.

DS is perfectly content.

Doing his work online and "virtual" socialising via Skype and various online games.

He's set up "home" in the study and all we can hear when passing is him and his pals all online, chatting to each other having a blast.

He's only emerging for food (or turfed out to get a shower) and is happy as Larry.

It's a blessing and feel for parents whose kids are already climbing the walls in frustration.

Mine has been trying to self isolate for the last 2 years but now he's on the other complications list and doesn't have a choice he's furious 😂.

I'm going to ask him if I can borrow his bike to go for a spin tomorrow to really upset him.

my 13yo (ASD) is perfectly happy - he cheered & did a dance when I told him our holiday was cancelled. My other three are pretty miserable.

My autistic 9yo described it as "my dream life". He also won't do any school work as school work is for school.

Mine was made for lockdown. She has had her exams cancelled so no school work. Shes literally lying round doing absolutely bugger all except social media, watching TV and eating..I said earlier shes now 5% human 95% sloth and my ten year old said that's offensive to sloths even they do more than her.

Shes just taken the dog out a walk for her daily exercise. Which is the first exercise shes done in days

Mine are like me - total bookworms who couldn't be happier being at home with a huge stack of books to read, tv, internet. They are teens so already used to communicating with their friends online extensively.

The only difference for them is they can't go for coffee.

Both home from part time jobs (Uni students) but should get 80% of pay.

We are all pretty happy with our situation, but obviously worried sick about getting ill or losing people we love. I suspect the children of those who attend multiple after school clubs and spend entire weekends going from one activity to the next will find it difficult.

This is so interesting, my ASD DC age 12 is really enjoying isolation so far. They can complete all the work set on line, I can help where required. They interact with ‘friends’ (more like classmates) via the Microsoft Team which they find much easier than real life conversation - time to think of an answer and fewer undercurrents to negotiate.

We did set up a daily weekday timetable for structure on the day the schools closed which has 100% been beneficial for ASD DC, and helpful for the younger ones too.

My 8yo was just at the beginning of being referred for ASD assessment (finally).

Even though he's finding the home schooling really hard he says it's much better than school. He's so happy to be home.