Me and Coby

I was a latch key kid growing up.  I spent hours alone after school home alone with my brother.  We are lucky we made it through our childhood years.  I remember for quite some time gathering my stack of books up and calling my grandma on the phone and reading to her. I did this for a long time each day.  She never complained, bc she knew then that I was ok.

Now that I have my own kids, I would say that I am the over- protective mother.  I'm not one to let my kids walk home from school unattended, roam the neighborhood with their friends, etc.  I want to know at all times where my children are, who they are with, and what they will be doing.

Coby is 10 now.  I remind you that he is Autistic, not a typically developing child.  Close to it, but not quite there.  We recently started allowing him to stay home alone for very short increments of time.  We felt he was learning to be more responsible.  I needed to run to the sports store today to pick up some shorts.  He was not feeling well and on the couch watching TV when I left.  Before leaving, I gave my strict instructions. 
1. You are not to touch the stove(the boy loves to cook).
2. Do not touch the lighters.
3. Do not answer the door.
4. Go across the street if the house catches on fire.

I'm gone maybe 30 minutes.  I come home, pull in the garage, Paige goes in first and yells to me " Its smells like smoke in hereeee!"  I go in and yes, the house is FULL of smoke.  I look at the fireplace and see my logs are moved.  I knew EXACTLY what they looked like before I left.  I look at Coby and say " I gave you strict directions not to touch the lighters." He was attempting to start a fire in the fireplace so he says. The chute was not open and I know better.  He was playing.  We caught him out in the yard the last two days trying to start the grass on fire.  The boy knew.

Needless to say he has lost his stay at home alone priveleges.  I tell dad about this later in the day.  He comes home and makes Coby write on paper I WILL NOT PLAY WITH FIRE on every line on the front and back of the sheet.  Dad really isn't angry with him. We just wanted to get our point across.  Coby HATES to write.  Absolutely despises it.  He begged dad to please just ground me and take my WII away.  He starts writing, decides he will just write in really big letters so it uses a few lines at a time, and presses realllly hard with the pencils so the lead breaks.  I had to get get him the pencil sharpener.  I could not keep a straight face doing this.  Coby was begging for a different punishment.  I'm sorry, but it really was very funny.

I get to be the over-protective mom again.  I'm not ready for this and I guess apparently Coby isn't either.  I guess I try to be everything that I didn't have in hopes that my kids will grow up fond of their childhood and be level headed.  All I want out of them is to be good, responsible adults.  I don't care what they want to be when the grow up.  I just want them to be good adults and go through life the right way.  I really hope that I'm not asking for too much...