6/25

All week long the name "Benjamin Nushmutt" has been bouncing around in my head. Who the hell is Benjamin Nushmutt?

Went to Compleat Kitchen today for cookie/biscuit cutters. (We're doing a Jell-O jigglers thing tomorrow.) For such a small store there sure is a lot of stuff in there. E's B declared it impulse buying day and so aside from cookie/biscuit cutters we got a potato ricer, a tool that looks like a sawfish's saw, a vinyl soapdish shaped like a fish. I don't want to share the soapdish so I'm keeping it in my room and puttign my earrings in it or something.

Neighbor is yelling again. Make that screaming. They were doing so well (or so it seemed; I haven't heard any yellign in a long time before tonight.) He is really scary because he screams at the kids at the top of his lungs. Also he slams doors and things like that. I feel horrible for them when this happens because he yells rhetorical-type questions at them, the kind where you're damned no matter what you say. Usually it ends with one or more bawling children. And dire threats that if they don't stop crying he's really going to give them something to cry about. Now if that isn't the stupidest thing parents could ever say.

The thing is some people are just loud ... like they just have bellow-y voices. But neighbor sounds so angry it's scary. He gets so angry at them for things like not finishing their homework or forgetting to do their chores. When I had the middle one at kiddiepark she hated going home and she was always worried about her homework. She wouldn't do it, she would just sit there worrying about it. How shitty to be so afraid of your parents.

Work is so much better now that I work with the little ones again. The hardest thing is at the end of the day, after we've spent six hours (okay, minus naptime) showing them how much they can do on their own, their parents pick them up and take them home in a stroller. I could see if they were under three years old AND severely autistic AND a known flight risk AND they lived far away. Otherwise, these kids should be walking and carrying their own bags too. And their parents wonder why they have such difficulty adjusting to kindergarten or why they still cry every morning when they come to school.

At class tonight while we were supposed to be assembling lists of what belongs in a "Super Sub Pack!" we talked about skills trainers for autistic kids. The teacher always talks about crappy STs who do nothing but "sleep" when they're obviously supposed to be helping their client (sometimes a preschool child, sometimes a high schooler.) I said there were no crappy STs at my school (at least none that sleep, for goodness sake.) STs have a tough job. The pay is decent but it's hard work. I would be an ST if I needed a change of pace, but I actually have a job for the coming year. I'm around autistic kids all the time anyway. And I'm so glad that next year I will have all those STs in my room (half a room, actually.) Come to think of it, we do have one crappy ST. Next door. She acts like she hates her client. (Hint: If you dislike kids, don't waste the school's or kid's or family's time by signing on to work with an autistic child.) Just because only a bachelor's degree is required for most agencies doesn't mean just anyone will be good at it.

Wisdom teeth tomorrow. SO much for the weekend.