Posts by Kate Swenson

When you have a child diagnosed with autism, suddenly everything feels different. Almost as if you are looking at your same life, your same child, even yourself, through a funhouse mirror. It’s you. It’s them. It’s the same house. It’s the same family. But it’s just different. I’ve felt that way for fourteen years now. And while I am more than confident about so many things, navigating autism in the world is confusing. The days of black and white are gone. It’s all greys now. Last night my fourteen-year-old, nonspeaking…

Today, I received a phone call to pick my autistic son up from school. He was really struggling. And while no one got hurt, and no property was damaged, he wasn’t being safe. They did the right thing to call. They care about him. And I appreciate that. Only this isn’t the first time since starting high school. It’s also not the second or third or even fifth. School is really hard for my son. He also wants to be there. And he’s in the right spot. I have never…

I have never met a person who loves Christmas more than my oldest son Cooper. So much so that he has been asking to put up a Christmas tree for well over a month now. I managed to hold him off until today. But when he got off the bus today, he immediately pointed up to the grey Minnesota sky and said… SSS-NNN-OOO-W. Cooper doesn’t have a lot of words. He is technically nonspeaking. I would say he has 20 or so words. 5 that he uses consistently. And maybe…

Parenting a child with a disability is not a competition to see who has the highest functioning kid or the most severe kid. It’s not about bullying a fellow parent for admitting they are having a hard day. It’s not about alienating them because they see something different than you do. It’s not about arguing over labels or word choice. And it’s especially not about belittling a fellow parent who is newer to the journey. A parent who is asking questions. And asking for help and support. Acceptance takes time.…

A few nights ago I had one of those pinch me moments. I had just put the car in park and turned off the engine. I grabbed my phone to check a message quick. I paused as I heard a siren driving by. My son Cooper, who is 14 years old, calmly touched my arm. When I looked up he smiled and pointed to the fire truck and then tapped his chest. He wants to ride in a fire truck. This I know. Together we got out and made our…

When my son was diagnosed with severe nonverbal autism nearly 11 years ago, I remember feeling like we had the only child with autism. As we made our way home from his diagnosis appointment, we wondered where the other families like ours were. We couldn’t possibly be the only ones going through this. For so many years, the isolation continued. At first it was just a feeling. We were different. And boy did our world get small. But then for a lot of years we couldn’t safely leave our home.…

I often say that my son’s diagnosis of autism touches every aspect of his life. From small things to big things. Even something as simple as riding the bus. See, I worry a lot. About everything. Especially when he’s not with me. When the bus pulled in the driveway after his first day of school this year, I was waiting as the big doors opened. My first question…’how did he do?’ See, as a mom of a kid who has struggled in the past, and still does at times, I…

My oldest son was diagnosed with severe nonverbal autism at age 3. In so many ways it felt like it changed everything. Big things and little things. Would he ever be able to talk? Would he make friends? Would he learn to drive a car? Go to prom? Have a job? Would he ever live independently? Goodness I worried. And wondered. About everything really. His story had no clear answers. He’s fourteen now. A teenager. A freshman at our local high school. So many parts are as I predicted they…

Autism has been in the news a lot the last few days. More than I’ve ever seen in my fourteen years of being a mama to a child with severe nonverbal autism. I thought it’s what I wanted. To be seen. To be understood. To finally have people take notice of this complicated, mysterious, magical life alongside autism. I was wrong. Reading and hearing about my son’s disability, mostly being shared by people who don’t live it, has been unsettling. So much fighting. A lot of us verses them. Finger…

After my son was diagnosed with severe nonverbal autism at age three, I was told all of the things he would most likely never do. Speak. Read. Write. Live independently and so on. As if the people around us, the ones there to help us, knew his future. It felt crushing. It was as if his story had already been written. And there was nothing I could do. Well, there ain’t no determination like the determination a mother has when she is told what her baby won’t do. Mark my…