Yeah, I've thought about custodian for my son too. I'm not sure if he can do it, though. I know that sounds odd. He's normal intelligence, but he can make the oddest mistakes sometimes. And it's worse with anything spatial. I used to joke that he'd get lost going from one room to another in a two-room house. His sense of direction is so bad. I can't even begin to describe it.

Then anything that involves doing a series of things totally throws him. Repetition is key for him. A custodian has to move from area to area in a building, doing certain tasks in each area, and not the same tasks. In an office, he'd maybe vacuum and empty the trash cans. In the bathroom, he'd mop, clean the toilet, wipe the sink, and empty the trash. He has to move through the building, not missing any rooms (my son would forget to go into all the rooms), and do the correct tasks for each room. I know it sounds easy, but without someone to prompt him, my son couldn't handle that.

I know it sounds like something a person with average intelligence could easily handle. When he was a kid, I used to think he was doing it deliberately. I'd think he didn't care about doing a good job or that he figured if he did a bad enough job, I'd stop asking.

Now I'm sure this isn't true. He really wants to do well, but there's something preventing him. It's why he gets so paralyzed and why he always thinks he's screwing up. And then he overfocuses to avoid making mistakes. Then he makes mistakes becauses he's overthinking. He'll make bizarre mistakes. And you'll ask him why he did that, and he'll either say he doesn't know or he'll tell you the thought process that lead him to do that. It's always this odd trail of thoughts that you can kind of see how he got there. The core is usually that he doesn't trust himself, so he starts overthinking.

People have actually told him that they thought he was retarded when they first met him. He'll be so confused about things that are so simple, then he'll suddenly say something so freaking brilliant, you're just standing there with your mouth hanging open. Then he gets mad that you're surprised, because he figures it means you think he's too stupid to have such a thought.