Should parents teach boys on the spectrum how to date?

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Soooooo...no idea what being a parent is actually like, gotcha.

I’m “in loco parentis” to 20+ teenaged kids at various times. Behavior modification is the name of the game. It’s still unreal to me what they’re capable of, and they never cease to amaze me. Being broke means the intellect and wisdom are their most important assets. I’m not worried about how my kids will turn out.

But I’m not compelled to support behavior I don’t believe in. Like I said before, they are already free to do as they please. The question is whether or not they do it with my help.

Find a new home for your kids. Don’t worry about the money or “diverse opportunities.” They already have that. Living it is much more interesting than merely talking about it.

Find a new home for my kids? Like inside one of my friends' exes? No thanks, I'm perfectly happy living with the freedom to do whatever I want and not have to worry about taking care of gremlins. I have enough friends with children to know there's a lot more to life than pumping out babies.

I’m free to do what I want within reason. And I mostly include my kids in that. They make it fun.

Gremlins? Geez, just don’t pour water on them and you’ll be fine.

In all seriousness, you have to do what’s right for you. You’re not less of a person for not having kids. But I will say that I think we have a wide credibility gap between my 10+ years as a parent PLUS my teaching experience vs. you “have friends with kids.” Believe me, when I first got in this business, not even married, and I had to tell parents they were doing something wrong at home for their kids to act that way around me, I caught all kinds of shade. When people see how my ACTUAL kids act vs. theirs, they’re like, “oh crap, he’s SERIOUS.” So when you tell another parent her perfect little angel is being a little sh¡t, your tone changes and the child that comes back to you isn’t the same child you saw yesterday.

They think we work miracles with our own kids. No. We’re not that good. We’re just CONSISTENT. We LIVE the kinds of things most people only talk about: poverty, values, theology. Our Catholic friends are BEGGING us to move across the street because we act more Catholic than most of them do (we’re Baptists, folks, get over it).

And that’s why I don’t assume the worst of my children. I know how I’d react in certain situations. They’re already well aware of that. But when I look at other kids and already see patterns that everyone says WILL happen to my kids...well, it’s just not happening like everyone says it’s supposed to. Seriously, we’re at the age when they turn into little monsters and it hasn’t happened. “Oooooh, but wait until they become teenagers...”. Excuse me? I WORK with teenagers and most of them are just not like that. A few, yes, but they hardly represent an entire population. And those few very often come from deeply troubled homes.

Sooooooo... I don’t think I’m going to lose sleep over it any time soon. Speaking of which...

I think that parents should teach all of their children how to date.