Posts Tagged ‘Special Needs Parenting’
Autism’s Fingerprints
My name is Carrie, and I have five kids. My second son has autism. His name is Jack. He is sixteen. Autism impacts the way he eats, sleeps, learns, and moves. Let me tell you what else autism does. It takes a perfectly ordinary activity, and smudges it with its greasy fingerprints. It turns up the volume, and makes everything so bright and glaring, you have to squint to see any of the goodness that might be left. There is no manual for this—for figuring out how to clear through…
Read MoreYou Have Time to Help Your Children
‘They grow up overnight.’ As parents, I think we’ve all heard that sentiment. ‘The days are long but the years are short.’ That one is my favorite. And it’s so true. I have three boys. Cooper is ten years old. I blinked and here we are. Sawyer is 8 and the little one is 2 going on 13. We are just your typical family. With the color of autism woven in. One of my goals is to talk about the things I’ve learned being a mom to a unique boy.…
Read MoreHe is the Expert Leading Me Through This Journey
I do not have autism. I am not autistic. But my son is. Being his mom in no way makes me expert. But I do my best. I try so hard to be the best mom I can possibly be to him. Autism feels confusing to me a lot of the times. I believe we live in a black and white world for the most part. And my son lives in color. Blues and reds and yellows and greens. We, his dad and I, have navigated autism for ten years…
Read MoreKindness is the Most Important Thing to Me
See that boy on the left? The one in blue… He is 8 years old. He is in 2nd grade. At least once a week he tells me he can’t wait to be a grown up so he can ride dirt bikes and do whatever he wants. But he also reminds me he is never moving out. He plans to live in the backyard. We had his school conference last night. His teacher told us all about his test scores for math. We talked all about developing skills versus proficient…
Read MoreThe Waiting Game
Caption this photo! We stayed in a cabin for a few days and the boys were absolutely fascinated and intrigued by this contraption. Also, the real reason I’m sharing this photo is to brag on this kid. Waiting is one of the most fundamentally important skills we learn as we age. Waiting is a skill that has never come naturally to Coops. Sitting. Standing still. All so important. For us, from the day Cooper could walk, he was running. He ran into streets. He ran out doors. He ran towards…
Read MoreSpring Break in Minnesota
People who follow me make a lot of assumptions about our family and these boys. It’s interesting, funny, even upsetting to read them. People assume that Cooper, and ultimately autism, is a hardship. People assume the younger two are neglected because they see Cooper get attention in a 4 minute video. I could go on and on. We are on a spring break two night vacation. Because flying isn’t an option for us we went to northern Minnesota. The day before we left it was 65 degrees. The day we…
Read MoreAutism Representation – Daniel Tiger to Introduce New Character
I can vividly remember taking my autistic son, Johnny to the park when he was four years old. As I pushed the double stroller with him and his baby sister through the park entrance my heart sank as our usually pretty empty park was full of children and parents. Johnny was excited, and there was no turning back. I had to let him play for at least a little while. As he darted off to play I quickly strapped the baby to me and followed him like a shadow. Sometimes…
Read MoreCoop’s Troops: Friends You Haven’t Met Yet
I’m a firm believer in finding your tribe. For me that is the autism parenting community. In the middle of pandemic this has been an extra challenge. But I never imagined that I’d find my tribe all across the country. I wasn’t in a great place last year when Covid happened. So many things were happening and then all of a sudden the world stopped. During that time I enjoyed the extra hands of help that my husband brought. But being unable to go anywhere made life hard. Luckily, while…
Read MoreIt’s Not That I’m Not Happy For You
I need to be real for a minute. It’s not that I don’t want to be around you. It’s not that I don’t like your kids. It’s not that I don’t love watching your kids grow up from afar. It’s not that I’m not happy for you. It’s just too hard. It’s too hard to see your children developing at a normal rate. There’s no speech and language delay. There is no vocal stimming. There are no show stopping meltdowns. You have kids who have a typical path to follow.…
Read MoreAutism is Not Always to Blame
From as far back as I can remember, Skyler has always expressed himself by using his hands. The most common of his ‘gestures’ is open hand smacking of walls, cupboards, doors, counters, people, etc. Basically, if he could reach it, he would hit it. Hair pulling was his second favorite method of contact. Oddly enough, it often wasn’t done to gain the attention of the person on the receiving end of his torture, but simply because he liked the texture of the strands of hair between his fingers. What began…
Read More