Chatty thread for ND mumsnetters

[whiskeyarmadillo]

I thought I'd try and start a friendly chatty thread here on the ND board. All are welcome. Bring a cuppa.

I'm whiskeyaramadillo. I'm late 40s and AuDHD. I have a ND parent and two ND children - my third DC is NT ish. I work full time and live on the western edge of London but my heart is firmly in the countryside which is where I grew up. I have one black and white cat who is my sunshine although he is in my bad books today after bringing in a mouse.

Today (Sunday) I'm sorting out my very very messy house - again. Making sure homework is done and uniforms are clean. Putting endless pants and socks in drawers. If I'm lucky I'll get to lie on the sofa and continue reading 'Wintering' by Katherine May or watch a bit of a crappy fantasy movie with a giant mug of tea.

What is everyone up to today?

Could be sensory as well because of the noise, maybe the parties have been too noisy for her and she had a meltdown because of it. Sometimes less attention is a good thing because if she’s bored, she can make her own entertainment and right now, it’s good she is thriving and has friends

I’m not a parent so if my advice is wrong, I don’t mean to offend you

Sorry, one more thing, her main emotional difficulties seem to come from hyper focus. She really has a long attention span on something that interests her, but she struggles to take a break when it becomes frustrating. Normally if she is making or something.

Even as a 1 year old, she would sit and focus for ages. Eg complete a shape sorter, which is a lovely trait, but not really normal.

Yes, hyper focus can be an autistic trait. I can hyper focus, especially when I was into diamond painting and I could do that for hours and same with adult colouring books and even when my hand started to really hurt as it often did, it was hard for me to take breaks as well

Can I ask if you or your husband are ND?

I'm pretty sure my husband isn't. But DH has a brother who is and he thinks his dad is. His dad was actually non verbal for some of his childhood and has OCD. My family, quite geeky, that highly intelligent in maths and science and socially unaware traits, plus, the hyper focus. But very functional adults. A cousins son is diagnosed autistic from about 2/3 years old and similar traits to other men in my family. And I've not met my dad's cousin but my mum thinks he's autistic, but not of the generation diagnosed. I've heard he gets anxious and partiacular about meet ups, location, seating plans etc and he can do that party trick of being able to quickly work out what day of the week you were born based on your birthday.

I just ask as there’s a theory that autism runs in families so that might be useful to know