my ds took 3 doors off their hinges between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2. Fingerprints, scuffs, a dent in the wall that looks like a fist went thru it (not.. just a corner of an occassional chair. Fingerprints on any shiny surface, mirrors, windows, slide doors. scrapes in walls from toys dragged across them.Scuffs and scrapes on the wood floor. Ha! we will re-paint every room in the house eventually.

Maybe have an area, with a ton of whiteboards and kind of condition him to those places...?

Kris

My 5 year old gets toys out all the time, i'm always having to clean up after him...i'm glad i'm not a clean freak or i'd be cleaning non stop.

Having Autistic kids, we just have to understand them i guess, and people know we have Autistic kids so they don't expect a model home.

But i know, it's still frustrating...

I love those Mr. Clean Magic erasers, they work great for all the stuff mine writes on the walls.

Oh and they take scuffs off too... (the Mr. Clean erasers :)

You just have to get used to the fact that your house will never be normal. I will tell you that my Noah used to draw masterpieces all over our house until he was @ four, then he stopped. But, he still makes messes, and most of my friends and family who do come by, which is not too many, know about his autism, so they are not surprised. I do not let him destroy valuable things. I try to re-direct him by offering a favorite acyivity or food item.

I swear by those "Magic Erasers". And I now only buy washable crayons. Also, I give him those crayola pads of black paper that the special markers write on (and I put him in his booster seat when he uses them). There is also "washable paint" now that regular crayon and marker can be wiped off of. And I've painted most of my doors with
"blackboard/chalkboard" paint and only give him white chalk which is easily cleanable. I don't want to teach him that writing is bad, so I try to teach him that there are only "special" places to write and draw.
Maybe this will help.
Tracey

I know how you feel.I hope you dont work out of the house.Honestly I dont think I could do both.Cleaning up messes is an all day thing for me.Food is and poop are the worst ones.I like logging into this site to let my mind excape and find people having the same problems.Sometimes going outside helps just for a few minutes.Depending on how long it takes them to run away from you.

yep all the time. Make a wall just for him put papper on the wall for him and let him go. At least this way he colors on the papper and not the wall. and about the doors and floor I don't know yet.LOL but I know how you feel.

Yep Mr Clean magic erasers are great. We only do painting and coloring at the table on paper. I have this huge roll of paper and i just cover the table with it.

far as cleaning up after him Steven has to clean up after himself!
And he does. Put car in toy bin etc etc it is much easier to teach them to clean up after themselfs then us doing it all the time. But i do admit i clean up after him alot too.
laundry is my killer, omg.. how many sheets can u wash in a day?????
Steven gets food all over the place... grab a bit and run, or the ol "I dont want to eat this I want to stim on it!!" He has to clean that up too.
Expressing themselfs by art , writing, stimming in thier pudding (steven)
all this messy stuff, why are we so tired??? Cuz if we arent teaching them something, redirecting them. cleaning THEM, we are tryin to make the rest of our daily life happen. Cooking dinner? Taking a shower? GOING THE BATHROOM! emptying the dishwasher, mopping floors vaccuming, dusting. washing mirrors finger prints and finger smuges from some slipper food. (steven)
How about the ol wash my bathroom floors every nite after bath time! and the towells i use to catch the water if i dont wash them right away they get that old smell and u have to toss them...
You opend a can of worms.
Sometimes I am too tired to redirect, too tired to have him clean up. everything is hand over hand, or
directed w. me helping him too.
(((((SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH))))

sunnygurl
take all the markers and stuff away. playdough etc.
Just have him use ones u can wash off, and it has to be done at the table or desk.
The kids need to learn* where its ok and where it isnt. Tamtrums meltdowns yup!! Let him tramturm away, but choose one battle a MONTH. One a Month.
mine this month is peeing in the toliet!

Well, I swear by magic erasers and should have stock in the company by now..lol The other day he wanted these scented markers. I only let him use them on paper of course. Well, he snuck them upstairs one day while i was cooking, and wrote all over the doors upstairs. I don't know WHAT things were made of, but they wouldn't come off with all the chemicals I had..lol I read on a website that nail polish remover should do the trick.. BIG mistake, it took off the first coat of paint, and still left some of the writing behind.

To best explain my child is to say he does have an obsession with doors, but also locks. He finds it soothing to make locks out of modeling clay and then applies them to various parts of my home. I tried switching to playdoh since it's easier to clean, and I also started buying him play houses to make his lil creations, but he still just had to put some on the wall. Last weekend I spent all day scraping the clay off, and washing walls and doors. I went downstairs for abotu 15 mins to put some laundry in. When I came back , OMG, if they weren't right back again.

I told him tomorrow it's all coming down, and he won't be allowed to do it on the walls or doors anymore. I figured if I gave him some warning he might not tantrum, but this is gonna be a rough ride for sure. I don't exactly know what I can give him in place of this activity to measure up to what he's doing now.

HUMMMMM
likes to create huh...
Im thinking...
what about big cardbord piece of a big box, like a frigerater box. It can be HIW OWN space for locks w. the play dough or clay. He likes the texture of the soft feeling it has, and to create it , Sounds like steven but he has not gotten that intune to his ability YET. just bangs it w. his hands and pushes it down or thoes plastic cutters for play dough.
You could place the cardboard box on a wall. draw door knobs on it. cubbords etc. I wonder if that would work??so instead of taking it completly away he still has a choice of WHERE he can do it. Thats the only place where he can do it. And it is HIS. Cost ya nothing! But alot of deep breaths.

stevensmom, That's a GREAT idea! He is also into kitchen appliances, and the playroom is filled with pretend household stuff. So, if he could make his own door and still do his locks that just might work.

I'm gonna search around see if I can find a big box.

thanks you!

U get em Girl~ I think it just might work!
A day at a time. Remeber one thing it is ok if our kids have a tramtrum as hard as it is to endure them. It is a teaching thing. Just be ready yourself for the battles, so u can endure the tramtrum and stick to what ur trying to teach!
Let him be Mr Fix It Create It!

read thru my typois as Im typing as fast fast as my son is stimming right now LOLOLOL