It’s never easy to bring up a child. I’m always too quick to point out to my single friends that kids are tons of work and to enjoy their freedom while they can. “You think being married is like having a ball and chain?! Try having a kid!!”Thinking back, I could kick myself for having said these things because I forget how grateful and blessed I am to have M in our lives. He’s a happy, healthy, relatively well-adjusted, and rambunctious little boy who can make us laugh with his silly faces one minute and then feel completely exasperated the next minute.
Parenting a healthy child is hard. However, I am completely floored by the experiences parents with autistic children go through. Because yesterday was World Autism Awareness Day, I took the opportunity to educate and remind myself of the challenges parents of autistic children must endure just to keep their kids safe. While I am often relieved to put M to bed and reclaim my time, my heart goes out to parents who must be constantly "on," vigilant, and apologetic regarding their child's wild, often unexplainable behavior.
If you haven’t already, take a minute to educate yourself on autism because the least we can do for these parents is lend some understanding and support.
Here are some resources to get you started:
Autism Speaks (the videos are great for identifying early signs of autism)
Autism Parents' Plea: Understand Kids' Meltdowns, a CNN article regarding a parent's struggle
-Thuy
35 comments:
This is so true. Dealing with a child who has autism or even a life threatening illness is extremely hard on these parents and they truly need all of the support they can get.
I've taught some kids on the autistic spectrum, but am fortunate that my own kids show no signs. These parents do need a lot of love and understanding.
I feel for all those who struggle with raising a child with autism.
Thank you for this post. I live with autism everyday through my son. He amazes me more than you can ever imagine.
A little understanding does go along way!
You are very kind. I know some parents of autistic children and they do seem to be exhausted a lot of the time. Hats off to them on Autism Awareness Day.
May we continue helping and supporting them and hope for further understanding.
And may you continue to be such a caring person - as if you have a choice right? You just came that way!
Wow, I know, it's important to remember that parenting is hard at any given time, I count my blessings and support those who need it.
I am not the parent of child with autism, and how we forget that it is not easy raising any child but those with special needs take even more dedicated parents. I am always in awe of the dedication I see in parents with children with autism and other disabilites.
I too feel blessed and although autism is not really detected until the child is older (I have a 7 month old) I enjoy him to the fullest. I too tell my friends to enjoy being single. Not because I don't like marriage and motherhood, but I enjoyed being single so much that I ended up getting marred and I will do not want to return to the single world. I feel it's just important to really enjoy every aspect of your life.
I don't have any personal experience with autism but how wonderful of you to help spread awareness.
thank you for the links...I am going to follow your example.
Very thoughtful of you to bring more awareness to this. My good friend's son has autism (hope I said that right) and she's on-call all the time. And doing a wonderful job at it. I help out by taking her younger daughter when I can. With a few happy hours in between, :)
Wonderful post! I have been trying to figure out something to post for Autism. April is Autism awareness month, so I am definitely going to do something.
There's an autistic kid at our church who has done some unexpected but not "bad" things beyond his unusual mannerisms. I'm sure I'd have been more judgmental in other circumstances being unaware of his condition. As it is, he is fully accepted by the congregation and even appropriated his own special role as "Beadle" at the close of the service.
Not to be disrespectful, I have been wondering lately if my son's dog is autistic - seriously - he does not relate as every other dog I've ever known relates. He's not stupid (although I thought he was retarded when he was a pup) and so I am left wondering.
Thanks for sharing. I would not change having my child for the single life either.
I am always amazed with parents who are able to deal with unique children. Then one of mine presents his unique sense of life and I stand there feeling like the one with autism.
I've learned over the years that every child is 'special' in some way and every parent is 'specially' equipped to love and experience life with that child.
I no longer judge or criticize in order to feel better about my parenting skills. We all need to be loved and supported as parents.
Great post!
Wouldn't it be nice if we could all, take back, some of the silly things we said when we were young and dorky.
You're right -- it's something everyone should be aware of. The kid who seems to be acting up in the supermarket could have autism, and you just don't know....
Well said, thanks for the links!
Thank you so much for this post. I am one of those reluctant singles who is constantly being told "just wait" but since all of my friends have kids, it's good to be reminded of what some of them may have to go through if autism diagnoses come their way in the near future.
Thanks for sharing this! It is so difficult for families with special needs children, it just makes stressful situations even worse when people don't show any understanding or compassion!
Also, I would like to announce that I am back from my blogging hiatus, stop by and check me out again soon!
Thanks for the links - I've been to them before. For some reason, autism always drew me in and I had to know more about it - especially when I was studying ECE. So little is actually known about it, but more and more kids are being diagnosed. Parent's and children with autism need more support than they get right now.
Autism is a crazy thing~ it has so many variations and levels. I once heard a saying, "if you know ONE child with autism, you know ONE child with autism."
I think that is the best way to describe autism. Scary thing, but the more we understand, the more we can help!
Great post...I'm lucky enough to have two healthy children and am often exhausted and overwhelmed. I can only imagine how parents of autistic children must feel... I wish there was some way to harness our support (and babysitting time?) to help them.
This is so great of you to be writing about this subject. Yes, we should all be greatful for our healthy children. Sometimes it' hard to remember that. I have an autistic grandson of whom I watch often. Actually he has apsergers which is autism and ADD. It is hard to deal with and you never know what to expect. Thank you for telling others about this. Parents of these children need to have a lot of patience and compassion. My heart goes out to them, and I say hats off to them as well.
As a mother of a child with autism I wish so much that others would educate themselves as you have. It's so hard when your child "looks normal". There are no physical markers to say "Hey, I've got a problem, can you be patient with me?" And so we struggle. And we hope for more people like you in the world.
Thank you.
Thanks for posting thing! I don't have any children, but my heart goes out to parents of autistic children. They are so dedictated in what they do and definitely deserve compassion!
Thank you for this post! My son, we're almost 100% sure has aspergers (we get the final assessment on the 28th) I'm actually hoping we have a diagnosis on this because raising a child with even autistic like symptoms is challenging. So thank you again :)
I came over from another site to see what was up...I live in an area where there is a lot of autism awareness, Princeton NJ... I also raised a daughter with physical and learning problems, so I so understand what these kids and parents go through...kudos on the education!
As a parent of a child with Autism I thank you for this post.
This is so very true - my nephew is autistic and I admire my sister for being a great mom. He's brilliantly smart and she's done such an amazing job raising him.
I just read an article on Yahoo that I think you might find uplifting. A young austistic man running his own business.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20090403/ts_usnews/how1autisticyoungmanrunsabusiness
The 7 year old I nanny for was just diagnosed with Aspurgers (on the autism spectrum).
Thanks for the nice post. Understanding really does go a long way for parents of autistic kids. It would be nice to have note cards with a pre written explanation on it for people who look at you weird when you're out in public. Even something as simple as getting a haircut can be a chore. But my own little guy has the sweetest spirit, and I wouldn't trade him for the world :)
Thanks for the shout out for our kids. I have to keep reminding myself that it feels hard because it is, not because I am a wimp and a whiner.
Whenever I hear about a family struggling with autism, or anything for that matter, I always feel so blessed to have 2 healthy children. And then I feel guilty for letting the little things bother me. Thanks for posting this.
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