The other day one of my children was confounding me – which is not difficult to do. Though I am considered academically gifted, every day life is surprisingly challenging (it surprises me, even!). I brought the issue up with my husband, who is a quite gifted problem solver, it is what he does all day at his job and he loves it.

His wonderful advice was that I need to make sure that the child respects me. OK, I said, so what should I do to get that to happen, and how do I know when it has happened? My dear sweet husband looked at me with a very annoyed expression and said, “So you expect me to tell you exactly what to do?”

My internal reaction was, “Duh! Why do you think I asked for your help in the first place? If I knew exactly what I was supposed to do, I would be doing it.”

What I said was, “I am not trying to be difficult or lazy. I honestly have no idea how to use such a general piece of help. How do I know when this child is actually respecting me?”

This is a perfect example of how people with Asperger’s Syndrome are not easily able to figure out specific steps from general information, and vice versa. I sure wished I could!!