Autism Parents Do NOT Hate You
Dear “NT” neurotypical Parents,
We don’t hate you. We don’t dislike you. We aren’t jealous of you. I think some of us are envious, but never jealous.
Many times you seem to misinterpret our intent. When we say, “you’re lucky to worry about sports, or girl scouts, or sleep overs, college,” and so on, we mean it. We know these are big worries.
When we say we would love to worry about those things, often times, you get bent out of shape. Don’t. We don’t belittle your worries at all. What we mean is, we would rather those worries, then the sad ones we are faced with.
For a moment, put on some special needs parents glasses. See through our eyes.
We worry because our children often stand out and are bullied. (Not to say that yours aren’t, but often times, it’s special needs kids whom are targets.) We worry about our children being successful in a mainstream classroom. Getting invited to other children’s parties. Being asked to play a school yard game.
We worry about IEP meetings. Therapies. Specialist appointments. College isn’t even in some of our children’s realm of possibilities.
We worry about what will happen when our children age out of the system. For many of us, we worry about who will care for our children (even as adults) when we pass away.
Some of our children have comorbid diagnoses. (Which means they don’t just have Autism.) Many of them also struggle with mental disorders. So now we worry about hospitalizations. Maybe even institutions.
So you see, when we say “we wish we could worry about tee ball,” we aren’t demeaning your worries. We are saying we wish our worries were the same as yours. “Happy” worries as I refer to them.
Please, when you read our memes or our posts about these issues, try not getting so upset. Try putting on those special needs glasses I talked about.
Parenting is a rough gig. Whether your child is NT or not. We know that.
Try understanding our worries for a moment.
Sincerely,
an Autism Mom <3
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