Read the small print

Facebook is responsible for all manner of evils and I must admit that I've only kept my account open so that I can be a member of the Tatty Devine fan page where all the best acrylic jewellery gossip is to be found - I'm not going to mention the sales page because I am trying to forget that I know about this and stop spending every penny that comes into my bank account on plastic jewellery.

I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I updated my status on there. Once in a while I'll have a scroll down my newsfeed and be a bit nosey.  I normally just end up upset that the Mum who I thought I really liked from puff's toddler group is a raging fascist or struggling with conflicting feelings reading PR'd statuses of how perfect someone's life is when you know all is far from perfect and who are they trying kid?

It was on one of my periodic, this programme I'm meant to be watching on tv has got boring but I can't be bothered committing to doing anything else, newsfeed scrolls that I came across a friend's post about a free Autism course. Brilliant I thought, this friend also has children on the spectrum and I read a bit about the course, the provider and was impressed enough to sign up, without really reading the small print at all, let alone carefully.  My programme had probably got interesting again and I do have a spectacularly short attention span.

So the next time I saw my friend I thanked her for sharing the link and asked her if she too had received a rather hefty package containing the course materials.  Through her mirth she explained that she had read the small print and was canny enough to realise that committing to undertake the course within the timescales set by the college or receive a bill for the cost of the course (a quite hefty bill I might add) might not be in her best interests. I on the otherhand was going a particularly fetching shade of green at the thought of the wrath of g if I received a bill from the college for not handing in my homework.

My grand schemes of completing the course in my one time or even of just accessing all the resources and not bothering with the pesky assignment stuff have been scuppered, spectacularly so. I am now studying to a timetable for the first time since university - which was a long time ago!

To add insult to injury the course is no walk in the park.  It is really indepth and requires me to find a quiet space and dedicate some proper time to it. Not an easy task when you have an ASD tweenager and a hooligan toddler on the rampage.  That said I quite like it.  I have had really positive feedback from my tutor for my first two assignments and in a recent meeting with smudge's school shut the headteacher down instantly by speaking like someone who knew exactly what they were talking about, that felt good!

I will be making sure that I stay away from Facebook, it just raises my blood pressure anyway. I'm also resolving again to read the small print. But really this is turning out ok.  I would never have committed to doing to the course had I known about the financial implications of not completing it on time but I kinda like using my brain in this way again and learning more about a condition that smudge will have her entire life can only be a positive.  Even though I could do without the side order of panic at when I'm going to get it all done.