World Autism Awareness Day shines a bright light on autism as a growing global health crisis. WAAD activities help to increase and develop world knowledge of the autism epidemic and impart information regarding the importance of early diagnosis and early intervention. Additionally, WAAD celebrates the unique talents and skills of persons with autism and is a day when individuals with autism are warmly welcomed and embraced in community events around the globe.
By bringing together autism organizations all around the world, we will give a voice to the millions of individuals worldwide who are undiagnosed, misunderstood and looking for help. Please join us in our effort to inspire compassion, inclusion and hope.
Raising kids is a tough, tough job. It's made a lot tougher by the millions of sperm-and-egg donors out there who think nothing of creating life only to mistreat, ignore, or otherwise bring children into this world that they have no intention of caring for or raising right. Those of us who are trying to raise our children to be honest, respectful, thriving human beings are faced with lots of challenges, hurdles, roadblocks, and other obstacles to surmount in our daily quest to help our children arrive at adulthood whole, complete, and ready.
I can't imagine what it's like for the parents of autistic children who are also faced with the additional challenge of a child whose chemistry is a little different. In addition to the many pitfalls of modern parenting, these parents have children who are misunderstood because they are different, who act out through no fault of their own, who - because of a quirk of evolution we don't yet understand - do not have the same sociological norms as the rest of us. The challenges these parents and their children face, coupled with the normal tantrums and generational disputes common to parent-child interations, make what is under the best of circumstances a challenging time even more so.
TheBoy has a friend with Asperger's. He's a bright, well-behaved boy most of the time, a fierce and loyal friend to TheBoy and an all-around good egg. He does have his moments, like when something happens unexpectedly or he doesn't quite understand something, but for the most part he's a normal elementary school kid. In different times he'd have been called a "spaz" and left alone; I'd like to think that as we've come to realize these different disorders that we've become more accepting of those that are different - especially realizing that they are as they are through no fault of their own.
My hat's off to the parents out there of children with autism - and to the kids themselves. I know how tough it is to raise "normal" kids (well, simple genetics prevent my kids from being normal but you get the idea...); I cannot fathom how much more difficult it must be to have a child that does not conform to the rigid constructs of what we dictate a "normal" child must be like. I know that I love TheBoy and BabyGirl G. with all my heart and would do anything for them; I know that if someone hurt them, whether through malice or thoughtlessness it matters not, I'd react accordingly (look for the mushroom cloud); I know how incredibly tough a job raising kids can be, especially today where it seems like everyone's looking over your shoulder.
Please take a moment today to consider those that live with autism each and every day.
That is all.
2 comments:
Thank you
Just read this post aloud in my bedroom.....Mrs. West is still crying.
Jay, you are now a deity in our household. Many thanks, my friend, on a phenomenally written piece.
If anyone out there EVER has questions about autism, shoot 'em too me.
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