"Can you make it non-fiction, pleasey-please?"

   Tim has a very literal mind. Sometimes he has a lot of trouble separating fact from fiction.  He didn't really start to "play pretend" until he was about six.  Lately we have had some trouble with him wanting desperately to make something he's pretending real. It's a bit difficult to explain why it's not real just because he wrote it. Many things, from being able to drive at fourteen, to his "laws" of his room, are absolute in his mind, because he wrote them down, sometimes hundreds of times.

AKA The One Hundred Commandments

   Words are very important to Tim. As I've said in previous posts, he doesn't internalize his thoughts at all. If he thinks it, he says it. So we hear about whatever he's thinking about. Many times he writes down what he's thinking about, especially if it's something he really, really wants. Tim also believes he should be in total control of his life, and the world. He tries to realize this control by writing what he wants, and declaring it a "law". So often we are shown long lists, or even booklets he's made of all the things he wants. Everything from "hurting people's feelings is against the law," to "I want the weather to be nice."
   We have to be very careful of what we say, and how we say it. One problem we had early on was "bad words". Of course in common parlance, this usually refers to cursing. It was confusing for Tim because how could a word be bad? What did it do to make it bad? Break the law? Did words go to jail? So in our house, there are no "bad words".

Was it a villain?

   We had to re-think the term "bad word". Okay, there are no real bad words, just inappropriate words. Or inappropriate times for certain words.  Like birthday parties, or grocery stores are not the best place to start hollering about bodily functions. However, if you are at home, and stub your toe really hard, it's okay to yelp "damn" or another appropriate exclamation.
    Sometimes, we have disagreements about things Tim has written. Just because he's made a sign that says "Walking barefoot in the snow is healthy," does not mean we're about to let him tramp out into the winter streets without footwear.