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This kid sounds like a spoiled brat. The audacity of him to want to use hot water to shower and clean things with. What does he think? That hot water just grows on trees? Gimme a break! Get a job, kid. And earn your hot water.... like a man.
I was talking to my friend in her 40s last week and she told me about her 16yr old son. She thinks that he's spoiled but her husband doesn't.
Basically, he has autism and some sensory issues. He's very clean (almost to the point of being obsessive about it). When he cleans however, he has to switch on water to boil or boil water in the kettle. He can never wash with cold water as it feels uncomfortable for him but he also says that hot water cleans the dishes better/cleans the bathroom better.
Before showering, he always has to turn on his Dyson fan as he feels very cold stepping out of the bathroom after a shower. Again, in the shower he uses nearly boiling hot water.
My friend thinks that even with his autistic issues, he's a bit spoiled as he's running up all these hot water costs. She says that when he's living alone, he'll soon learn how expensive these things are. Her husband on the other hand doesn't see an issue with it and says that at least he's much more responsible when it comes to cleaning the house compared to boys his age.
Who's in the right here?
This mother doesn't know what spoiled means.
A child who expects to be provided with all the latest expensive brands of clothing and technology products is spoiled.
A child who prefers hot water due to autism and sensory issues he can't control is not spoiled.
I was talking to my friend in her 40s last week and she told me about her 16yr old son. She thinks that he's spoiled but her husband doesn't.
Basically, he has autism and some sensory issues. He's very clean (almost to the point of being obsessive about it). When he cleans however, he has to switch on water to boil or boil water in the kettle. He can never wash with cold water as it feels uncomfortable for him but he also says that hot water cleans the dishes better/cleans the bathroom better.
Before showering, he always has to turn on his Dyson fan as he feels very cold stepping out of the bathroom after a shower. Again, in the shower he uses nearly boiling hot water.
My friend thinks that even with his autistic issues, he's a bit spoiled as he's running up all these hot water costs. She says that when he's living alone, he'll soon learn how expensive these things are. Her husband on the other hand doesn't see an issue with it and says that at least he's much more responsible when it comes to cleaning the house compared to boys his age.
Who's in the right here?
Ummm how expensive is the hot water?
I have gas appliances in my home, the natural gas appliances include stove/dryer/hot water heater and my gas bill is about $25 a month including service fees. So 83 cents a day.
If junior took cold showers/washed dishes in cold water at my house I would expect the bill to still be in that range.
No he's not spoiled. Rigid routines, practices & sensory preferences are literally diagnostic indicators of autism.
Neurotypical people have very few of the sensory brain synapses (connections) that they were born with, left. Normally, at around age 2, immune cells in the brain called Microglia, "eat" or "prune" away the infant synapses to make way for the new learning based, sensory synapses.
In autism, the Microglia activation is impaired & they fail to prune away the old synapses. The new, learning based, sensory synapses still grow, but they don't have anywhere to "plug" (connect) into, so they plug into other receptors. Autistic brains can carry 50% more sensory synapses than normal brains.
This overgrown, cross wired brain will result in sensory seeking behaviors that seem bizarre to us but it's not something that can be "unlearned". Would you say that a person with a spinal cord injury is acting "spoiled" because they "won't" walk?
Of course not.
Depriving this autistic person of the demands his brain is making, will result in a lot of anxiety, anger & fear for him. Why would you do that to a disabled person when the solution (letting him use hot water) is such an easy accommodation?
Would you tell a deaf person he can't have an interpreter because that's being spoiled? A blind person can't take a seeing-eye dog into a public place because that's being spoiled? Is that a "first-world problem" because deaf & blind people function without interpreters & seeing eye dogs in the 3rd world?
UGH.
Mom should be so grateful that her son isn't severely autistic like my son is. Does she still have to physically GIVE him a shower? I have to physically bathe a 6 foot 5, 280 lb autistic son every night ... If she doesn't have to do THAT; I'd say she's got it pretty good.
This kid sounds like a spoiled brat. The audacity of him to want to use hot water to shower and clean things with. What does he think? That hot water just grows on trees? Gimme a break! Get a job, kid. And earn your hot water.... like a man.
"When I was a kid I had to walk barefoot in the snow five miles uphill both ways just to bring water to the stove in a bucket, and then I had to walk back to get more water and then I had to gather up the wood too, which I had had to chop with an ax (without gloves) after I cut the tree down with a saw all by myself. Oh and then I had to build a fire using a flint."
he's a bit spoiled as he's running up all these hot water costs. She says that when he's living alone, he'll soon learn how expensive these things are.
How expensive is it actually? Is the water heater powered by electricity, gas or oil?
I take steaming hot water showers for 20 mins at a time. In the winter it's not unheard of for me to empty a 40 gallon tank. I also love to clean with steaming hot water because it's more effective at cleaning, and the hot water evaporates more quickly. Wife will easily attest that I use all the hot water in the house.
My water heater is powered by natural gas along with my clothes dryer. I think my highest gas bill in the summer (when the natural gas heat isn't running) is $25. The dryer probably makes up most of that as we are running laundry constantly with 3 boys.
i don't like cold showers either. and hot water in fact DOES clean everything better.
if you want to know what spoiled looks like, it's the kid whose parents buy him a luxury car for his 17th birthday, and have been showering him (no pun intended) with lavish gifts for no reason at all throughout his existence.
seriously, is this a real concern of yours?
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