Friday, January 16, 2009

I have to teach someone social skills now?

There is no shortage of things I am not good at: sewing, solving a Rubik's cube, trimming my bangs, scrapbooking, and playing poker, to name just a few. But my social skills are really substandard, and always have been. I was a gawky, awkward child; a tentative, self-loathing teenager and now I am an adult who reluctantly muddles through social situations with clenched teeth and crossed fingers. So how the hell am I supposed to help Weston figure out how to solve his social problems?

I obviously can't model successful behavior for him so I am reduced to mouthing platitudes when Hannah doesn't want to play kitties, or when Jack wants to play Star Wars clones and Weston doesn't. I have tried several things, and I was really optimistic when I taught him to ignore someone. We role played and everything. I played Weston first, to show him how to ignore, then I played Jack while Weston practiced ignoring me. It worked great, and he loved the game. Yesterday he had a chance to showcase his new skills.

We were playing at Jack's house and Weston didn't like what he was doing. I have no idea what it was he didn't like and I don't really care. All I wanted was for the squealing to stop, immediately if not sooner, and I reminded Weston of the techniques he has at his disposal when someone's behavior doesn't suit him. He decided to ignore Jack and was super excited about it. So excited that he said, 'Look, Jack! I'm ignoring you!'

3 comments:

Helen said...

Hahahahahaha....at least you got that much. Jack's brain just escapes in a vaporous cloud and anything we've "discussed" goes with it. SO FRUSTRATING!

Helen said...

Oh, one more thing...I was going to say the funniest part is that because of the noise it sounded like Weston was saying...."Jack! I'm annoying you." Talk about lost in translation. Maybe the'd do better if they spoke Korean. We should try that next time.

Anonymous said...

I have a new list i am working on, it sounds like maybe you need to try it
Its called "what i m good at that most people aren't."
I have on my list 2 things so far:
bake a cake in 5 minutes
write with both hands
i think you are good at lots of things.
LOVE Me