Or so I've been told. A lot. Lately. Almost daily. Can you tell I have some stuff to get off my chest? Bear with me folks. This one is a rambling mess.
Since dipping my toe into the autism blogging waters boy can I just tell you how much my views on autism have changed? Well not really. More like my views on how folks view autism now range from "Wow that's a really interesting perspective." To the more extreme "WTF!?!?" On many occasion.
I knew opening up a door to my life to the World Wide Web that I was bound to hear some criticism. I get at. Here's the thing. I'm not an expert. I'm just a mom with wifi and a smartphone. Up till this, I kept my arse out of the autism warrior mom wars for completely selfish reasons. I value what little sanity I have left. I'm only trying to help one kid and one kid only. MINE!
I get that some folks although well meaning just cannot stop themselves from telling me or another one of my fellow in the trenches with me parents how we are screwing up our kids. I suspect if we were all just parents of neurotypical kids only, these folks would still be telling me how much therapy my kid is going to need because of me as an adult. I know these people just exist.
Some are nothing but clueless shit stirrers. You know it. I know it. They can paint that perfect picture of what they CLAIM to be doing. Doesn't mean they are actually doing it. Or if it is really working as well as they say. It's really easy to put on the mask of the perfect parent hiding behind a computer screen. I do find myself rolling my eyes and trying like Hell to let it roll off my back. To not take it personal. It's really hard sometimes to not engage. To not explain more than once why we do what we do. I've ignored it as much as I could but yeah there are days I've had to break out the delete and block buttons. (Not gonna lie. Trying to figure out a way to build a real life "Ban" button. Hurry up science!)
The Facebook page that is connected to this blog has exploded in a way I could of never of fathomed.
Even though I really didn't think it could ever grow like it has, I am so grateful it did! It's been so supportive to me to say in a quick status "Oh my god I want to slap Steve from Blues Clues!" and immediately I'll get a ton of comments from folks plotting the deaths of SpongeBob or Elmo. Folks who get that their kid's quirks aren't so bad because they will be the first to admit they have their own. (I am so jealous of my son's weighted blanket). People who know that when one of their kids has autism, the whole family has autism. It's just a completely different way to live.
If I have learned anything from this experience, I'm living autism the way it's right for this family. Just like everyone else is doing what works for them. Even if I think it's nuts. You can save yourself a lot of heartache if you stop panicking you're doing it wrong. You probably are, in someone else's eyes. But who cares? Is it working for you? Then game on dude and order another side of fries.