Dog Rescue Refuses to Adopt to Families with Autistic Children

On March 22, 2022, Kismutt Rescue of Ontario, Canada, posted a message on their Facebook page. It was addressed to “Mama Bears” and referenced their policy of not adopting to families with autistic children. (*I could not find this policy on their website, so it is not clear whether it is for any autistic individual or just autistic children.) The message related two incidents that resulted in the creation of the policy. One took place around 2008 or 2009 when, according to them, an autistic child’s mother called to say…

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The Special Needs Sibling Shield

Today we ventured to Walmart for a few things. Eggs. Milk. Nerf gun bullets. And 2 pieces of paper. The essentials. Obviously. Outings as a family are still relatively new for us. And while they are far from perfect, they are real. See, we have a kid who is just learning about waiting and buying and walking and all the parts of the world. While our son Cooper is making amazing progress at stores and by amazing I mean huge leaps and bounds…so much of it is still hard for…

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The Brave Ones

What is bravery? I’ve been thinking about that question lately. The definition is the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty. It goes onto give examples of a brave firefighter. A brave nurse. A brave athlete. And no doubt, yes, they are brave. They face burning buildings and medical tragedies and catch the winning pass. They do things I could never do. They are brave. But I think about bravery in another way too. Imagine going out into a world…

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I’ll Be There For You

After my son Harper and I lay down, he always requests a song. He will say “sing!” Then he will name a certain song. Lately, it has been the “Friends” song. Yep, you heard right…the theme song from the show, Friends. He is definitely his Mama’s child! He would prefer the whole song, but I normally just do the chorus. Tonight was different. Tonight, I sang the whole song. As he drifted off to sleep, I caught myself really listening to the words. Tonight, as I lay there singing my…

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My Kid is Not a Monster

This piece was shared with me by Danielle of Story of Noahism. I read an awful story this morning and I’m sure some of you in this community have too. The one about a young boy with autism that was dragged through the hallways of his school by a teacher/para. Another one these stories that we seem to be hearing more and more of lately. As a parent to a child on the spectrum, these things are terrifying and heartbreaking. And I made the mistake of reading the comments on…

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