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“Don’t compare,” they say.“Your child will progress in their own way, in their own time.”“There’s beauty in the different.”All wonderful advice. All true.But it’s not simple.It stings sometime.I live within our bubble.To be honest, I am the bubble.I protect. I contain. I shield. But within that autism bubble, sometimes I drift in and out having a typical child, having other children in my life.Sometimes I look outside; other times I don’t.Sometimes I can’t.We aren’t always part of that outside space.And then come the moments where I see it — typical.A…

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.…

To the Teachers Complaining About My Son Being in Their Class, First, I want you to know I get it. I understand that the blunt way I was told about your frustrations with my son wasn’t just about him. It was about you feeling hung out to dry. About being expected to manage him and 25 other students without the support you need. I see that. And I want you to have that support, not just for my son, but for you and for every child in your classroom. Because…

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.…