My life with Spongebob: tips for staying sane when your world is not.

First off I realized it has been a while since I posted anything in this part of my blog. Another school year has passed by at an alarming rate and since we just finished our year-end testing, I felt I needed not only to clean the house, but also clean up my blogging act.
Any home schooling parent will tell you that if you let it life can run away with you. With a child on the spectrum it can be especially so since a lot of your energy goes into just getting up and getting through a (school) day.
This year went well in the sense that my son finished most of his school work and he was able to take an IOWA test with some modifications. I ordered the test well in advance and had him take one to two sections a day. With his school work he worked through his language arts, math and reading programs but social studies and science were still a bit hap hazard. He did participate in an art show, displaying some of his work there, played in the student piano recital an danced with the other children in the ballet school's dance recital.

a multimedia project my son entered in an art show

One things that has not really "gone away" is his passing obsessions with logos, adds, cartoons and antropomorphic characters. In the past his "friends"( as sad as this sounds, to him these are his friends; he can relate to them, they are predictable and accepting) have included Thomas the Tank engine, Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars, and Shaun the Sheep. I did not mind so much when he recently got all hung up about the minions from Despicable Me. They are sort of "cute" and they talk in jibberish so there is less opportunity for my son to pick up inappropriate phrases that he does not understand.
His latest "friend" however is Sponge Bob. I am not too thrilled about this because Sponge Bob tends to be rude, there is all sorts of inuendo in the scripts, which he doesn't understand but repeats ad-nausem, and Sponge Bob is just ..annoying. Imaging being woken up at 7 a.m. to be told: "Sponge Bob did such a funny thing"...
My son tends to speak in scripts so when he is in Sponge Bob mode all sorts of stuff comes out. I had a "delightful" child come and tell me the other day: "Mrs. Sharp, did you know he was saying ....".
How do you handle this sort of thing? Thankfully like most children on the spectrum, M is very aware of rules and explaining to him that it is rude, or "against the rules" to talk that way often puts a stop to it.
Can you turn this into something positive? Yes. Although all this scripted talking and perseveration can drive me to the brink of insanity you can turn it to your advantage. Sometimes we use the scenes to act out appropriate behaviors and attitudes. I have used some video's as teaching tools or taken the stories to force my son to write his own "adventures".
One thing I realized is that my son does need some Spongebob time. When he told that that these are his friends he was serious. He does not have any human friends but these cartoon characters are his friends. I allow him sometime, sometimes setting a timer, where he is allowed to talk about his friends and interests. Once the time is up he has to move on to other things for a set period of time.
Ways to maintain  sanity: 1) carve out some time for yourself. I sometimes will tell my son that I need a break or time out. I set a timer, grab a cup of coffee and go to my room.
2) give your child perseveration time/minutes. You can get some chips, tokens or set a timer. The child is then allowed to talk about his favorite subject for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, what ever increment of time you feel you can cope with. Give out the chips/tokens as rewards for work done etc. Once the child has used up his allowance for that day, he's done.
 3) As hard as this is, try to take whatever is positive and emphasize this. If Sponge Bob is a good friend, does something silly/funny, is kind etc. praise him. It does sometimes help if the parent praises the character "into the grave".
4) Laugh and turn things into an opportunity to laugh when ever possible. Our lives are absurd; if we try to focus on good things, rather than what could have been, what isn't or will never be, we just end up depressed. This isn't pie in the sky thinking but it helps to keep going as we are in it for the long haul. As Patrick said to Sponge Bob:"Are they laughing at us? No, they are laughing next to us".