I finally feel like we are getting somewhere now and it is such an amazing feeling.
My daughter, 18, now has named her own business, and has another job from it. The services she provides are cleaning, child-sitting, pet-sitting, and tutoring, specialising in SEN but is open for anyone. This is such a great income boost for her and now she won't be stuck at home all week. The reason she is expanding her jobs is because she needs money to buy/rent a house for her children and dog which she is planning on having in 3/4 years.
I have now only realised that everything she is doing today, working and planning her future, it has always been the same since she was little, nothing changed. Around the age of 5, she was obsessed with my husband's van and the cars, she has since always wanted a van. From around the age of 10, she typically only made friends with children who have additional needs, even though none of them, including her, were diagnosed yet. She also loved her teachers and quite a lot of the time, the only way to get her to learn was through her 'teaching' the teacher. And, with my job, as a cleaner, cleaning was always her planned job. It was only until she was diagnosed that we wanted to teach SEN children.
On top of this, she has always wanted to adopt rather than have biological children because she says, and in her words: "There are so many children out there who are traumatised and have no loving home or anyone who cares about them and I want to make sure that this is stopped and they can feel safe for probably the first time in their life. I want to give them a supportive, loving, safe home." This has been her plan since she was 14. She did some research but this week she has made the final decision that she is going to adopt. She has researched in depth, planned a lot, and is going to apply and see where it takes her. I know she is definitely able to become a parent, she would be amazing at it.
I know in my other posts I share and rant about how challenging her behaviour can be but that is because in the moments, it is difficult to see the person she truly is. She has come such a long way, is a really calm, patient, understanding person, and we don't have many incidents now because she understands herself, her triggers and what to do to regulate. And the person she is today, I can't image how she will be in 3/4 years, she has just blown my mind away on how much a child can positively change. I believe the reason she was finding everything so difficult was school because since she has left, it's like having a new person in the house.
I hope you are all doing okay and thank you for reading. I just wanted to spread something positive for once!
