Balancing Autism with the World
More thoughts on making peace with public perceptions of disAbility differences. (Written as a Facebook response to another special needs mother, much younger than I and newer to the Journey):
Special needs parents have the challenge of not only dealing with the additional complexities that our children bring to our lives but also how to make peace within ourselves about these hurdles.
I’m struggling again with it now, and have been working on how to articulate it for about two years as Grace is BIG and then acts really WACKO at times. Her current behavior is charging into stores and doing this ridiculous looking dance that takes up an isle.
I have to constantly walk the line of:
- what’s appropriate behavior,
- not shutting down her joy,
- making sure she’s not disturbing others (in restaurants or by blocking aisles,)
- and walking myself through an internal clearing process so that I don’t own other people’s real or perceived negative energies. That’s what can drag us down and shut us down if we let it. We don’t need that. The world doesn’t need that. And, our children don’t need that.
I believe that often it’s incumbent on how we react to our children to teach others how to do so.
Photo: A moment of Grace: still, quiet, on the porch glider, chilling after school, captured on Instagram, earlier this fall, in our last condo.
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www.LeisaHammett.com; www.fromheartachetohope.org;
www.GraceGoad.com
Well said and something we all need to hear. Such a difficult journey and how to balance it all is something everyone should be informed about. Parents of children with Autism need support, I think everyone can agree on that, but an understanding of how difficult it is to balance it all is even more crucial to educate them about. We ALL need to be taught how to react to children on the Autism spectrum.