Autism! Get over it I Did!
I am continually asked to write about autism and my son.
This is what comes to mind. And I believe most people wont like it. Yesterday I was watching a video by a large nonprofit solely dedicated to autism. It pissed me off so royally I had to rant about it. A woman in the video made a comment “ suffering because of autism”.
So here it goes. My opinion!
I do not believe anyone is suffering from autism. Every autistic person I know is happier than I am. They don’t know any better. They live in a world of their own that is much happier than the world I reside in. In reality and in my head! Haha
My son, for instance, does not see race or age or sickness. He sees no difference in rich or poor, fat or skinny, beautiful or ugly. He just sees people! What a gift!
The only time my son ever “suffered” was when I did not accept who God made him to be! God allowed my son to be born with Autism and then chose me to be his mother. Go figure! Once I realized he would never be put into a box that our society has made for most of us I was able to accept who he was meant to be. He is smart, in a way that cannot be measured by our education system. He is social in a way that doesn’t meet he norm. He is endearing and loveable. He is kind!
Any suffering he’s endured would be the years he was in public school. Having the teachers tell him he was different. Choosing not to give him assignments that the other kids were given because they decided he was retarded and couldn’t do it. Over and over every day being told or shown that you are not like everyone else squelches your spirit. By 5th grade my son had quit talking. He refused to go eat lunch in the cafeteria. He refused to go out on the playground. I had let the school people define him in the 8 hours he spent at school everyday. I had failed him!
We left school 6 weeks before the end of his 5th grade year and never returned. My son is 16 now and more confident and capable than I am! He has a job at a local pizza shop. He is working on a client list for helping people with their grocery shopping. He takes the bus and gets paid by his customers to shop. He loves it!