Saturday, January 28, 2012

And the Day Has Arrived...

I knew this day would come. I guess it's finally here! Now that my son and daughter are starting to get older people are starting to recognize something is different about them when we go out. Between my daughters spinning, clapping, flapping her hands and her noises that she makes and my sons random screaming episodes and banging his head on what ever he can find when he's frustrated people are starting to stare at them every where we go and then look to me like I'm a bad parent and my kids are brats because they don't know what Autism is.

We took our kids out for frozen yogurt yesterday and my son does ok at restaurants if I let him sit and play with silverware. He takes all of the forks and spoons from the table, puts them in a pile and starts to rummage his hands through them repeatedly. Stopping on occasion to grab a quick bite of food from his plate. Amidst all the "clinking" and "clattering" the silverware was making the woman at the table next to me would briefly look away from her family to throw us a dirty look as if our kids were ruining her lunch. It breaks my heart, I'm completely not used to this, to people acting like this towards me. And I live in Utah!!! Mormon land! Where everyone is sweet and smiles at each other (unless you are driving on I-15).

So I'm ordering them toddler t-shirts that will be strictly their "grocery store t's" or their "going out t's" if I know we're going to a sit down place. Here is what they say:

Shirt 1) "I'm not Naughty, I'm Autistic."
Shirt 2) "Discipline wont cure my Autism."
Shirt 3) "Spanking wont cure my Autism."
Shirt 4) "It's not bad Parenting, it's called Autism."
Shirt 5) "I'm not a spoiled brat, I'm Autistic"
Shirt 6) "Yes I'm Autistic. Stare if you must I'm not paying attention to you anyways"

4 comments:

  1. I had to laugh at your t-shirts for your kids... I had one made for ben for his birthday this year that says "Sorry! My autism doesn't come with a Mute button." He loves it!

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  2. Just sounds like an excuse, I have seen plenty of autistic kids learn how to behave with behavior modifications and ABA. Doesn't mean spanking! Yes, they still have autistic behaviors, but they still need structure and (non-violent) discipline. My child has multiple handicaps. 1 of them is ADHD. I would never put a shirt on him like "I don't need to focus, I have ADHD".

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    1. Theres Tulips In HollandApril 4, 2013 at 6:50 AM

      Aw, I'm so bummed that you didn't have the courage to post your name. I guess it's easier to be a jerk that way. Well clearly you don't have an Autistic kid if you did, you wouldn't be coming off as an a$#. If you did, you would also know that the shirt isn't for the child, it's for the public. My kids have come a long way since this post. I do more therapies with my kid than probably the average parent AND in addition to that, if you had a kid with Autism and knew anything at all about the Autism world, you would be familiar with the term MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS use (unlike yourself) that says "If you have met one kid with Autism, you have met ONE kid with Autism." Meaning that no Autistic kid is the same, so please, spare me your lecture of comparing my kids (whom you've never met) to those Autistic kids you've seen in passing.

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    2. every parent is different on how they react to the public when it comes to there kids YES I have thought about this it would be so much easier but then I thought its a chance to educate someone about autism when my son is acting out i will say Im sorry but hes autistic and hes stimming which most of the time they respond he doesn't seem autistic so that gives me the chance to explain not all autism kids are severe like the see if I can educate one person every outing i feel like I'm doing something

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