If you are like me, when your differently wired teen* develops an interest in the opposite sex, you have to develop a whole new set of “rules” to help your child navigate flirting and dating. Social situations are hard enough when you don’t pick up on body language or subtle inflections of voice and tone that most “neurotypical” kids learn to read. My friend Lisa and I have four teenage boys we are helping navigate the tricky waters of dating. This list is geared towards teenage boys because that’s what we have. A lot of these rules will apply to girls too. I intend to get input from a couple of friends with differently wired teen girls to get their input for a list specific to them. Here are some of our rules for engagement.
*Debbie Reber of TiLT Parenting came up with the term “differently wired” to describe kids who fall outside the norm. It’s a good catch-all term for medical, cognitive and behavioral diagnosis that are different that the average person.
Read the rules at 8busybees.com