is this what an adult ASD has to look forward to?

[justsmileandwave]

diddyland

yeah, until funding is cut, then not even that.

I read that blog. It just defied belief that they would think it was appropriate.

I don;t know anything about C's abilities but had C agreed with Diddyland or even asked about it (ds3 will probably always love that sort of place) then it's IMO worse to ignore his request as a valid one from an adulot than to go with it regardles of what we define as age typical.

But trips at places can be shite; I once took a minibus load of people from a MH unit to a certain armed forces museum on orders from ahigh only to find we were facing people who hd mostly survived suicide attempts with a special exhibition on hari kari.

Nice.

And yes reality is that there will not be any services at elast as long as we live: services here being restricted already to those whose main carer is either seriously ill or placing them at risk of neglect

I thought this was going to be about the really upsetting article I read in the DM today.

But I agree - the place is not a place I would like DS to go to as an adult.

"The park was once a Council waste tip until reclaimed in the late 1950?s! It is now a large (45 acres) open space offering a range of sports and leisure facilities around an 8 acre boating lake. The site also has a miniature railway, childrens playground, café, nine hole Par 3 golf course, putting green, go-kart track together with some landscaped areas that provide year round interest for all ages."

I'm going to be controversial and say that I would absolutely love to go there for the day. And I'm on the autism spectrum and a mum in her 40s. One of the best days out I've had in years was with another friend on the autism spectrum and her young lad (also ASC) at Legoland. We played, we marvelled, we ran about.

There is sometimes a concept that people on the autism spectrum want to be mature, sophisticated, adult, sensible. And that anything that is childlike is patronising.

I'd say that a good few of us don't want to be replicas of neurotypical people, and a good few of us don't think that kind of activity is too young for us. But we're sometimes so worried about 'fitting in' socially that we pretend to enjoy (say) sophisticated parties where everyone bitches about each others' clothes or lifestyles and we end up feeling utterly alone and excluded and unable to join in and scared witless.

A day at a playground? Wheeeeee!!!!!!

Obviously, the individual views and opinions of the person in question should be asked, using whatever communication methods they use.

Thanks for that Amberlight :) Its so wonderful hearing from someone on the spectrum!

As a 37 year old woman who thinks the best place to vacation on earth is Disneyworld (and i'm NT!) I don't see what is weird about this either. My idea of heaven is a day spent in the Magic Kingdom in Florida or Disneyland Paris. I don't need any kids either, i'd be happy there all by myself.

Oh yes! Disneyland is fantastic!! But people keep trying to arrange for me to go to cultural things like a serious theatre production where I've no idea who's who or what they're talking about.

The gap between our 'intellectual' (speaking) age and our 'social' age can be decades wide. Not always, but much more often than people realise.

Embarrassing when I'm at conferences etc like I was last week, trying to look Mature and Sensible, and someone brings in a guide dog and lets them relax for a while. Guess which person is sitting on the floor with the dog, hugging it. Yup, that'd be me . Just so exciting seeing animals or playing simple games.

Amberlight - I'd love to go to Legoland. It made me pretty happy when DS1 developed a passion for making lego models once his ADHD was sufficiently under control for him to manage them, because I could share the fun with him :o

I would add "and I'm neurotypical" but that bit's somewhat debatable!

To be fair, legoland etc would be my hubby's idea of hell. But he absolutely loves steam railways.