2/13/14

Love, Not Fear Flashblog

This blog post is my belated contribution to Boycott Autism Speaks' Love Not Fear flashblog.

There are so many negative things that I could say about Autism Speaks and their message of fear and tragedy, but I would rather start with what autism means to my family.

It means that our lives are more full of purpose and meaning than we could have ever imagined.  It means that struggles and triumphs are part of daily life, but so is joy, love, and just being a family.  My children are the opposite of tragic and burdensome; I have never feared the diagnosis as many have but rather sought knowledge because of it.

When I came across people who said that they grieved over the diagnosis I was shocked.  WTF? Grief? You grieve when your child has a life-threatening illness or when you lose a child.  Autism is NOT losing a child in any capacity.  Your child is right there, right in front of you, waiting to be loved by you.  You will have to learn of ways to support them, to educate them, and to reach their full potential.

This is called parenting.

You will stumble along the way, and sometimes you will make mistakes.  But the worst mistake that you can make is the easiest to avoid: the assumption that they are not capable of love and understanding.  The assumption that just because they do not show these things in a way that is considered "normal" means that they do not feel or understand.

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