I am fighting a losing battle. Nigel’s room needs to be cleaned.

I have heard of some autistic people who need to have everything in its place and can’t stand if anything is out of place. Nigel is not one of those. If something other than his bed is in the same place twice, it is purely coincidental. I think he just has too much going on in his head for him to put something back where it belongs. I have also considered the possibility of laziness, which may or may not be fair, but this is getting ridiculous! You can’t even see the floor in there!

His designated room cleaning day is Friday, and something always comes up that makes me unable to enforce it. (Note to self: change room cleaning day on the schedule to a different day.) If I tell him that he cannot watch a movie until he has cleaned his room, then a friend will invite me out to dinner, and the safest, most reliable way to occupy Nigel while I am gone is to have him watch a movie. I have told him that he will not receive his allowance if he does not clean his room, and he doesn’t care. I have offered the reward of taking him to see the new Indiana Jones movie (which I know he wants to see), and even that does not motivate him. I have written down the steps to clean his room, broken them down visually for him: 1) pick up clothes, put in laundry; 2) pick up books, put on bookshelf; 3) pick up trash, put in trashcan; 4) pick up Lego, put in container . . .  all to no avail. And then I have to deal with this line of reasoning:

Nigel: But why do we have to pick up everything all the time?

Me: Because we are not animals.

Nigel: But we descended from apes!