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vpintheak wrote:

There is a lack of tolerance for "wierd" kids? You wouldn't know it by what you see in today's society.

Yeah. There is.

My daughter is mildy autistic. Geeky, and kind of on her own planet.

She doesn't care about "What's cool", doesn't want to chase boys, does her own sweetly weird thing and hurts no-one. She is gentle with animals and she draws... She can cook, and use tools and memorizes lyrics with one hearing.

AND if I am not on it, she gets beaten up and has always been called names and made fun of. She never gets invited to the sleep-over or the birthday party.

Why?

Because she's different. She says odd, strange things. She doesn't follow the crowd.

Breaks my heart.

That would break my heart as well, I would be very upset if my kids end up in that situation as well. Sorry if my remarks seemed callous, I was referring to the freaks and geeks that that we are to be tolerant of. Wrong article to be posting that remark, sorry again.

:There is a lack of tolerance for "wierd" kids? You wouldn't know it by what you see in today's society.

Yeah. There is.

My daughter is mildy autistic. Geeky, and kind of on her own planet.

She doesn't care about "What's cool", doesn't want to chase boys, does her own sweetly weird thing and hurts no-one. She is gentle with animals and she draws... She can cook, and use tools and memorizes lyrics with one hearing.

AND if I am not on it, she gets beaten up and has always been called names and made fun of. She never gets invited to the sleep-over or the birthday party.

Why?

Because she's different. She says odd, strange things. She doesn't follow the crowd.

Breaks my heart.
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I understand, but don't lose heart. Your daughter sounds like my wife. I met her in college, first day on campus in fact. She was "weird" in that she was completely oblivious to the current dress styles for coeds, wore bobbie socks and "way out of style" dresses, but she was interesting to talk to, had many interests and was articulate and honest discussing them. I guess she found me interesting too. Neither one of us had much interest in "chasing" anyone (even each other) or spending a lot of effort in the campus "social scene".

Long story short: we've been married for 36 years, have three grown sons, and a nice place in the sticks that she designed, contracted out, and managed the relationship with the builder (I've always hated crowds, and busy roads, and been fairly inept in 'productive' work but effective in 'analytic abstract' efforts). My father-in-law told me once he never thought she would have a family, and worried if she would even be able to get along on her own. We take good care of each other (I earn enough and she spends it wisely - - e.g., her management of all the details of our home construction project - - my part being to review the financial documents and work agreements to be sure no one was sandbagging us). Maybe I'm one of these types too? Probably. Anyway, hope your daughter finds someone like herself with complementary interests so that she and he can take care of each other. In the meantime, help her to look for like-souled neighbors. We're out there. And "Non illegitimati carborundum!"

Because she's different. She says odd, strange things. She doesn't follow the crowd.

Breaks my heart.

Your daughter sounds a lot like me when I was younger. I had few, sometimes no friends in school, and I was always the butt of cruel jokes.

Yet, despite the fact that I'm "different", I think I'm doing well enough. I've been married for 23 years, I have a son, and I recently earned a PhD and joined the Army (Hooah). The thing is, school is a horrible environment for anyone who doesn't fit into the narrow category of "normal." Once out of school, though, people are free to seek environments more suited to their temperaments. Just keep encouraging your daughter and remind her that things WILL get better.

Sounds a lot like my daughter. These kids learn to compensate for not having friends (she's had one, another aspie) so I make sure she gets lots and lots of kindness and love from me. I'm looking into summer camps now, camps designed for these kids, and believe this will give her a real sense of herself.

I'm a little weird too.

'T' hang in there with her, cause your kid has character (her dedication to work hard). Take the pain you feel for her now and turn it to faith, hope, and love. I have a brother similar to her, unique in his own way. I don't have one friend that doesn't love him to death and when we were younger, I felt the same way as you when other kids treated him with callous disregard. Your daughter will absolutely cool and fine in life. As long as she can always talk to you about how she feels, your encouragement and older wisdom will polish her inner strengths. You know something, some of the greatest people in history weren't 'normal' according the the sheeple masses.

Because she's different. She says odd, strange things. She doesn't follow the crowd. Breaks my heart.

I have a son like that --- but he's perfectly happy --- he's never called up a friend, none call him, he's never brought home a friend, he's perfectly happy to go to school but he's asocial --- happy in his own world, taking broken radios apart, playing with anything electronic, growing plants. He doesn't care what the crowd is doing, he seems to prefer animals --- horses, dogs, etc to human companions. Even the teachers don't think he's got a problem even though he has no friends because he seems quite happy, suffers from no peer pressure. He doesn't get picked on either --- I think if anything the others really he really doesn't care enough about their opinion and if anything he's well-liked at school.