Thursday, 2 April 2020

My sister (19F) is not taking any steps toward self-sufficiency, what can we do?


Hi everyone, I'm posting here because my family and I are desperate for some advice. Apologies for the wall of text.My (26F) sister (19F), let's call her Daisy, lives with my parents while I’m abroad at college. She was diagnosed with Aspergers early on, and my parents have provided her with all the help she could get. Private education, therapy sessions, motor skills sessions when she was young, etc…. She's high functioning. If you met her you'd think she's shy and awkward, but probably wouldn't know she's an Aspie. She struggles a lot with social interaction, and sensory issues.My mother has always helped her with everything. She is understanding if she couldn't eat a certain food or wouldn't communicate as expected. She gets her food cooked, laundry done, bathroom cleaned. If Daisy is unwilling to do anything by herself because it was too scary, our mom did it for her. She still cannot go buy anything (even groceries) by herself.As she grew up, this translated to schoolwork. She couldn't study for class? Mom organized, learned and repeated the material at her until she learned. She couldn't write the essay/do the project for class? My mom picked a topic, did the research, and gave it to Daisy to piece it together. By the psychologists' definition, she is high-functioning enough that these should all be possible for her.Last year she got into community college for digital design. My mom was the one who did all the research, helped her with her applications, did everything. They pay a hefty sum for her tuition. My sister said she wanted to do it. I don't know if other options were discussed, I was already living in a different country. Daisy didn't have any alternative plans she wanted to pursue. My mom has continued to do as much work for Daisy’s college degree as she can as well.Yesterday my mother found out Daisy has been lying, not attending her online Zoom classes and missed out on several projects, to the point that she's likely to fail. She already had to withdraw from another class due to her not getting a project done. Because my family is leaving the US within 2 years, she doesn't have time (nor my parents the money) to just completely fail a couple semesters.My mom and I are terrified that she'll just leech off my parents for the rest of her life, not get a job, just not do anything. What can we do to prevent this? How can we help her want a job? Or want to study? We want her to have self-sufficiency at some point.I know that my view is biased, because there is a healthy amount of resentment due to being sidelined after she was born. But in my view, she needs to be allowed to fail.Any advice you guys might have, is welcome. I know my view is probably tainted with my own feelings, which is why I want unbiased advice that I could help my mom out with. For the first time, she's receptive to the idea that she needs to step back and expect more. We just don't know how.TL;DR: My sister who has aspergers has been babied by my mother for her entire life – she doesn’t cook or clean, or go to the shops. She is now at college, lying about going to class (on zoom), and failing them due to laziness. We’re worried that she will never be able to be independent if this goes on. Any advice? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/3dPMDh9

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