D&D Hell

[trystinn]

I'm not really sure why I agreed to play D&D again, most likely a guilt response to create more of a social life. How signing up for weekly D&D sessions makes me more social I have no idea - but there you go. I do like these people, quite a few of which are BTW Seekers - which gives me an interesting perspective into their lives I might not otherwise have. This is both a good and a bad thing.

First off, their home is chaotic. Every time I go over there, its a caphony of competing video games with "Guitar Hero" on the living room tv and various hand-held games being played by the non-playing child. The hosts have two dogs, which honestly given I have four, is somewhat refreshing - though I'm concerned that both try to spend the entire game curled up on the bench near me or on my lap, anywhere to be away from the noisy kids.

I made a point at the beginning of the game that I have rather sensitive hearing and that loud background noise has a tendency to give me migraines - so perhaps could we put the kids down at 10pm or a quiet time of books, puzzles, etc.? I was immediately assured this was impossible. So until 1:30am three children under age eight were allowed to play "Guitar Hero" and various hand-held screaming video games in the very next room to our game. Two of the kids are autistic, one mildly so (frankly, I haven't even noticed it) and the second moderately so to the point where she eats everything (pica) and needs constant supervision. And when I say eats everything - I mean eats pencils, rips plastic off of toys and chews on it, sucks on razors, etc. Add to that the hosts taking turns screwing around on their computer when it wasn't their turn and you have a truly insane evening.

I realize I was raised very strictly - but since when is this sort of thing "normal"?

Comments

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Oh, the parents spank these kids - in between filling them with sugar and handing them video games.

The moderately autistic girl acts like a monkey much of the time climbing on things and people, trying to hang upside down from chairs and people and breaking into cabinets. Very much not like the autistic kids I used to work with.

[keastree.livejournal.com]

And they wonder why they act out? What a bag of mixed signals!

Mostly sounds like they need to play less D&D, and parent more.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

The concept of earning a video game or toy is absolutely foreign to these parents. When I mentioned we run a video game free household, meaning we ask friends not to bring them into our home, they gave me a disdainful look people usually reserve for members of the Branch Davidians.

Are we really that unusual??

[keastree.livejournal.com]

Yes.

My house is largely TV-free. It's movies-only, on an earned basis. Makes the kids do their house and school work, and prevents me from crawling the walls from the sound of the TV monitor on. I'm one of those people who hears well into that range and it is so distracting that I cannot have a conversation with someone while a TV or other CRT is on.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Oh dear Gods - I'm not the only one. I cannot stand electronic background noise like that. Radio I can handle as long as its something like NPR, PRI or CBC but a tv running constantly is enough to provoke me to murder.

Which is why dumping cable last month hasn't hurt my feelings whatsoever. However, friends with children are insanely offended that Cartoon Network is no longer available for their precious child to watch in our living room while adults are trying to hang out and talk.

[keastree.livejournal.com]

Synesthesia is a bitch. I see sound and I get these awful sprays of stuff through my vision at times. White noise is really white! Totally bolluxed reading auras until I figured out that I was actually hearing them, and getting a visual that in no way matched that stuff they teach us in witchcraft skool. Heh.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

I'm actually considering requesting a hearing test, its gotten so I can barely make out speech on tv or in person if there is background noise of any sort. Part of this is that damn women hearing where we've got to listen to background conversations and noises, I'm sure.

Lately, I've been selecting the caption option on movies so I can read along.