PLAN B
Empowering the Single Parent,to Benefit Their Child with Autism
Karra Barber-Wada
Plan B: Empowering the Single Parent, to Benefit Their Child with Autism
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©2013 Karra Barber-Wada
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Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this product may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of Future Horizons, Inc, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
Print book ISBN: 978-1-935274-79-7
E-book ISBN: 978-1-935274-85-8
This book is dedicated to my son, Thomas, and to every single parent who is raising a child with special needs. You are one of the noble, courageous, and dedicated—truly an unsung hero of our time.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my editor, Bobbi Sheahan, for your keen insight, encouragement, and guidance during the editing of this book.
To my husband, Scott, thank you for your unwavering love and continued support in all that I do. And to my son, Thomas, thank you for showing me how to parent you. You are a wonderful teacher.
Table of Contents
Single-Parenting a Child with Asperger’s Syndrome
CHAPTER 2
Co-Parenting Effectively in Two Homes
CHAPTER 3
Managing Money as a Single Parent
CHAPTER 4
Balancing Life as a Single Parent
CHAPTER 5
Preparing Your Child for Adult Life
In Closing
Epilogue
Frequently Asked Questions
Resources
About the Author
A large percentage of the parents raising children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the U.S. are doing so alone. The fact is, divorce happens, circumstances change, and life goes on. The ability to create a “Plan B” and put it into action is demonstrated over and over again in this book.
Over the years, I have met and admired many single parents of children with ASD. I’ve respected the love and commitment they’ve shown to their children and marveled at how they too have “survived” the day-to-day challenges of parenting alone. By offering a snippet of my own personal story, along with a compilation of other single-parenting accounts of separation and divorce, I hope to encourage you to recognize that you too can incorporate a new plan of action if you find yourself in a similar situation.
This book is filled with steps you can implement to establish a new “Plan B” for yourself and your child or children. I’ve broken these steps down into three categories, which will be accompanied by the following helpful graphics throughout the book:
I’ve also included a wealth of parenting tips to use when you’re faced with taking care of a child with ASD as a single parent. So—let’s discover what developing a “Plan B” is all about.
When I arrived home tonight, I discovered my son slumped over, asleep at his desk. His glasses rested crookedly on his face. Nearby, I found his laptop open and still humming. Good grief, I thought. I glanced at the clock over his bed. It was 1 AM! How long had he been studying? I wondered. As I scanned his room, I noticed a bunch of balled-up pieces of paper in the trash can by his desk. I picked one up and flattened it out against the desktop. On it was a half-written essay about the comparison between good and evil. His SAT practice book was cracked open to a page on which he had highlighted test questions. What is an auxiliary? What is the perfect participle? What is a hypothesis? There was a collection of vocabulary flash cards scattered across his desk. He must have been reviewing the materials one last time before taking his SAT exam in the morning. He’s come a long way, I told myself.
And so have I.
My son Thomas has Asperger’s syndrome. As a toddler, he had limited language skills, obvious processing difficulties, and complex social challenges. Today, you would never know that Thomas understands the concept of a “Plan B” and uses it as a
