My OT skills were wasted today, but at least I had fun.


Caption: I have no idea who this is, but it made me laugh…I was searching Google images for “hyper kid”

The following is not really OT-related, but it’s rainy and yucky and cold and I am feeling lazy and procrastinationish and have only done one good thing today, which is the following story, plus I think I’m allowed an occasional random post, but I promise I’m going to start doing more OT work in a minute or two. Plus the posts below this one are PURE *OT* baby, check it out.

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Today I braved the cold rain to go pick up a 13-year-old in 8th grade, let’s call him Bob, from school. I took him to get Starbucks because I’m a bad person and was okay with pumping up with sugar, caffeine, and about ten thousand unneeded calories. And because he enjoys the experience and I try to take him there every few months. I think it’s important to give kids one-on-time quality time with an older person, and while he wouldn’t admit it, he really likes me because I’m more or less insane. I lived with his family during a semester of college, years ago. Long story. Moving on.

This kid is hilarious. We had our Starbucks, then went home and upstairs to his room to play with his Legos. He has a really nice Lego table his grandfather built. The last time he wanted me to play Legos with him (he has this whole village set up on the table and storyline behind it), I pissed him off because I tried to give a monkey a gun, and he wouldn’t let me play anymore. (He is very mature and smart and understands a lot, although he is immature when it comes to play) Anyway, I thought I was hilarious, but he didn’t.

Today he knew better and didn’t directly ask me to actually play Legos and follow his storyline, but he showed them to me and talked about them (there was a recent explosion), and I offered crazy suggestions, all of which he didn’t like. I tried to add in random things and he said “New policy: No non-Legos in the city”. For example, he didn’t like my idea of a giant dragon egg in the middle of the village, and putting all his villagers staring in awe at it. He also didn’t like the idea of eating the Queen’s pet lego shark for dinner. He also didn’t like it when I put Lego flames in the Lego goblet in the King/Queen’s bedroom, and started screaming “Fire! Fire!”. He also didn’t like it when I threw a weird Lego bug into their room and started shrieking in terror. He had to exclaim in frustration, “Do you want me to kick you out again?” as I tried out all these antics. I tried to convince him the bad guys should show up on the village island via his mini Fedex Planes and not just magically show up. He didn’t like that idea either. He wanted to know a good occupation for a skeleton Lego. I suggested putting him in the cafeteria to detour anorexics. He didn’t like that idea either. Apparently, I was not made to play Legos.

I made some joke at some point, the kind of joke that amuses me and used to go over his head, and he said, “You know, you used to make jokes that would go over my head. Now I’m in public school. I get them now.” Guess I better watch it…

Then I asked him if he would rather have a monkey or a robot to help him do things, if he needed help (going back to an earlier OT post about this), and he said something about wanting a robot, because monkeys are messy. Then I asked him if he’d want the monkey if the monkey could clean up its mess, and he said no, he’d still want the robot, because robots can talk. Plus, he said, the robot can help him enslave the world. Later on I forgot what he had decided and asked him again and he said “depends on which one is more efficient”. I laughed and said I needed to bring a tape recorder with me. He said, “you can get those at Ike’s (drug store).” I said, “monkeys?” “NO! Tape recorders!” Oh.

Finally, I asked him for paper so I could write things down, and he handed me a sheet of reinforced binder paper, since apparently you can buy this, and I was impressed. He said he hates having to waste a sheet of paper for something small, and I said they should make paper like they do paper towels, where you can choose the length. He looked at me with an incredulous look on his face and I pre-emptively said “Shut up” before he could say anything. He said “You’re starting to get the picture.”

I love this kid. And believe it or not, he loves me back. 😛

Jan 31, 2008 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none