Sometimes, DJ's Asperger stuff just smacks me right in the face with a big loud DUH!

DJ went to bed at 8:00 the whole school year.  No problems, no tantrums.  Since spring has arrived (along with daylight savings time) he's complained that the sky is blue and he can't go to sleep when the sky is blue.  He can only go to sleep when the sky is black.  To keep the peace in my household I agreed to a 9pm bedtime AS LONG as we didn't have any problems in the morning.

We had a few stumbling blocks the first week but with the combined efforts of myself, his teacher, his bus driver and the bus aide, we have everything rolling smoothly. Unfortunately night time still has it's issues. 

DJ can tell time.  I tell DJ it's bedtime.  He tells me it's not time yet.  I tell him to check the clock.  He looks at the clock and I ask him what time it is.  He tells me it's 9 o'clock.  I tell him 9 o'clock is bedtime.  He starts freaking that I told him he could stay up until 9.  This goes on for a minute or two when my head starts to explode because I really, really, really want my ME time.  Then I tell him we can simply just change his bedtime back to 8 o'clock.  That stops him in his tracks and gets his little behind in his bed.  He also gets to live another day:)

Ok, so tonight it starts at 8.  He tells me he's allowed to stay up until 9 o'clock.  I tell him, "Yes, you go to bed at 9 o'clock."  Here we go....  This time, I put down my book (The ADD Nutrition Solution), and tell him we need to talk.  After about 10 minutes of back and forth and me telling him he needs to make me understand because I evidently swallowed the dumb pill.  So we broke it down.  He is going to watch a bit of tv until 9 o'clock.  I ask him what the numbers on the clock say.  He tells me 9 0 0.  Ok, so he has that right.  Then I say he goes to bed at 9 o'clock.  I tell him the numbers on the clock will say 9 0 0.  He says no.  I told him he could stay up until 9 o'clock.  I asked him if he was going to watch tv until 9 o'clock, then what happens next.  After a few times of going round and round, I finally get it that he is going to bed at 9 0 1. 

Evidently, you can't go to bed at 9:00 if you're staying up until 9:00.  Logically, you would be going to bed at 9:01.  I think we just hit a breakthrough.  But we can all say a collective DUH for mommy.