Older child that can’t be left alone?

[Lifelife]

Does anyone have an older autistic child (teenager) that can’t be left at home alone at all? I’m really at breaking point as this isn’t how I imagined life or parenting to be, I don’t think anyone has children thinking they won’t be able to leave them for a minute even at 14 😔 it’s like having a toddler still only harder, there is no autism in my family only my children, has anyone been through this and how did you cope?

Yes but they got to the stage I could leave them for short bits at 19. I'm sometimes a bit nervous about it but they are fine. They can message me if they need anything. Now at 21 they do really well and took a huge leap forward in independence (though still very dependent overall). They usually just came with me places, or you could get a support worker to stay with them if necessary.

We have a now 22 year old daughter who requires 24/7 care. We certainly havnt had the life we thought we would have, sometimes it feels like being in a prison. Half the fight though is just accepting what your life is, and not what you thought it would be . It used to fill me with grief having a life limited disabled child with massive medical complications who is non verbal, but I just decided that this is how my life WAS supposed to be , and that she was born to us for a reason. This helped me to make peace with it all and I give it my absolute all to make her life happy . I totally understand how you feel though op

I understand. I have a nearly 19 year old who can be left overnight as long as I keep in regular contact with him, remind him to switch oven off etc. I have a 17 year old who can be left for a couple of you in hi own or longer with his brother. 14 year old can't be left at all but can be trusted to walk from school to the car, about 10 minutes walk away. It's hard, and not what I thought parenting would be.