How is The Lodger?

I’ll start by answering the most common question we’re asked at the moment (especially now that he’s in his new school):
“How is The Lodger?”

And I always answer the same way,
He’s getting on great.

Great, although a great word (and it does contain the word eat, which is a favourite in this house) is almost not great enough for just how well The Lodger is getting on.

Terrific.
Fantastic.
Amazing.
Excellent.

Continue along those lines and you’ll begin to understand just how great The Lodger is.

Historically, whenever I say things are great out loud, that’s usually when a curveball smashes into us and I’m left thinking I should never have said anything at all. But just for now, to remember how good things are, I’m going to say it out loud and put it into the universe.

The Lodger is getting on great.

Home life: great.
School life: great.
The in-between outside world life: great.

A calm confidence has opened up in him. He is happy in who he is.

While we’d love to take all the credit for this, I know that without the support of his old school and his new school, he wouldn’t be the happy young teen he is today.

The Lodger is in his second term of his new school and has settled in so well. A lot of the skills he learned in primary school have helped him — and not the academic ones. I’m talking about the skills that don’t get ticked off on a report: communication, telling someone how you feel, sharing your thoughts, asking for help, asking for a break. Skills learned from his teachers and SNAs that he has been able to carry with him.

These skills have helped The Lodger the most with settling into his new school… and his PWS slideshow.

New in The Lodger’s life?
You’re getting the slideshow.

In his own words, it tells anyone new in his world about PWS. Looking at it means a lot to him. Knowing about PWS means the world to The Lodger. He loves people knowing about it. It makes him feel safe and understood.

And The Lodger is very understanding of people needing time to understand PWS. It’s complex.

Just this morning, younger brother joked that if he had PWS he’d eat all his dinner, and if The Lodger didn’t have PWS he wouldn’t eat his dinner.

As you can imagine (especially if you’re a PWS parent), this was met with a horrified expression.

“Not eat my dinner?! That’s not happening.”

Having PWS means food jokes are not in, even if it’s a joke about the person with PWS not having PWS. It can be a confusing world when you’re a younger brother.

“Mum, a bean is about to fall off his plate,” says The Lodger, exasperated.

Younger bro, grinning:
“But it hasn’t fallen off yet!”

“Mum, you’ve got to stop the bean falling off!”

Younger bro grins a little wider.
“But you can’t touch other people’s plates in our house. That’s the rule!”

As I’ve mentioned before, Younger Bro is the only one who can push The Lodger’s buttons  and he also knows when to stop.

“Ok, ok, ok,  the bean is in my mouth now!” he smiles.

A calm lunch resumes.

So, in answer to the question we’re asked a lot right now:
How is The Lodger?

The Lodger is great.

And in answer to the other questions people can’t quite say directly but ask in a roundabout way: yes, PWS is still there. He’ll have it all his life. Yes, food is still number one. Yes, we still lock our kitchen  and always will. Yes, he has harder days.

PWS is complex.

But mostly - and happily for us all —

The Lodger is great.

(Please, universe, let it stay that way.)