Actual conversations that took place today, between my 14-year-old daughter Lyn and me, her adoptive mom. She has fetal alcohol syndrome and learning disabilities and I am homeschooling her.

“Hey mom is this rug dirty?” Lyn asked.

“No, it isn’t” I responded.

A couple of hours later I was putting laundry in the washer and found the rug in the hamper.

“Lyn, why did you put this rug in the laundry hamper? You asked me if it was dirty and I said no,” I reminded her.

“Oh, I thought you said yes,” she says with a blank stare.

Lyn is doing some schoolwork on the computer and I walk up behind her.
“Lyn, I’m correcting your math, but you only completed seven pages last week and you were supposed to do three pages a day. Can you please explain what happened?” I asked.

Lyn, wide eyed but very confident, “Oh, I only did two pages a day.”

“Lyn, do you see here on the front of your book, where I wrote in permanent black marker, do three pages a day,” I continued.

Lyn with her head down answers, “Yes.”

“Well that means that you should do three pages a day. Even if you did two pages a day, that doesn’t equal seven. I think you skipped some of your math last week. I’ve asked you to show me your work everyday and you need to start doing that.” I reminded her.

“I’d like to check your penmanship book now Lyn, could you please bring it to me,” I asked.

Lyn says, “Sure, no problem.”

She brings her penmanship book to the kitchen where I am helping my eight-year-old son do his schoolwork. She hands me the book and looks pleased. I open the penmanship book and find that she is on page 10. I look forward in the book, which contains 190 pages to see if she may have skipped some pages. No, she is actually on page 10. I turn back through the pages she is on and she has skipped one page, so she has only completed nine pages.

“Lyn, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that you were not doing your penmanship and I reminded you that you needed to do it everyday. I have been asking you everyday if you did your penmanship and you have been telling me yes, buy you are only on page 10 and you’ve only actually done nine pages. I think you have been lying to me.”

Again, with confidence she responds, “I guess I have only been doing a half a page a day.”

Other Blogs on FAS
Gullible’s Travel’s – Living with FAS
Here is Your Engraved Invitation – Living With FAS
Photo Credit 2006 Julia Fuller