Have I ever told you how fun having a child with Autism
is?
No?
Oh yeah, because it’s not fun at all!
Let me give you some background. Nathan was ‘Google’ diagnosed at 2 years old
by me, educationally diagnosed at 2 1/2 by the Intermediate School District and
medically diagnosed at 3 by a Neuropsychologist. I noticed quite early on that he was a bit
delayed than what “they” said he should be at.
Who is “they” btw?? So I turned to Google because that is what everyone
does and took some online quizzes and came up with Autism. Who knew that my googling would actually turn
out to be correct this time! Once we
finally had some answers it was time to move on and start the life changing
process of being an Autism family. My
husband and I both jumped in feet first and got him the early intervention that
he needed. Well, lets’ fast forward to
now….2/18/2016 – Nathan is now 5 ½ and has grown leaps and bounds since his
diagnosis, but guess what? He is still Autistic and it is still frustrating and
annoying.
I love my son. I don’t
even really need to say that because it should just be a given, I am his mom of
course I love him and wouldn’t trade him for the world, but I will not
sugarcoat it when I say that Autism is annoying. In the beginning of our process we were so
busy just dealing with things to make sure Nathan can succeed in life. We were so busy with transitioning our family
from a typical one to an Autism one. We
were so busy just trying to get through the day to day routine and schedule
that I’ve never really had a chance to think about how annoying and frustrating
Autism is. Not only to me but to Nathan
too! I can’t imagine what is going
through his head when he is having a sensory meltdown and can’t calm himself
down. But I can tell you exactly what is
going through mine: “Seriously NOT again!! I just needed to run into the store
for one thing and now he is losing it in the checkout lane at Meijer….!” I have to quickly remind myself that
something as simple as going into a store can be the most stressful thing he
will have to deal with that day…but it doesn’t make it any less annoying!
Autism is annoying because it causes my son to do weird
things like having to roll his blue jean pant legs up before he can wear
them. And don’t forget, they must be
rolled up 5 times, NOT 4! No matter how cold outside or how dorky he looks he
refuses to wear any pants unless they are folded up right now….
Autism is
annoying because it causes my son to become so frustrated that he starts to
lash out at me. I can’t tell you how
hard it is not to push him out of my face when he is so close to me and
screaming that I can feel his breathe in my mouth.
Autism is annoying because there
isn’t a right or wrong way to deal with it.
What worked or works for one child may not work for yours.
Autism is annoying because it makes me selfish and then guilty when all
I can do is complain about how much it is affecting my life, when really I have
no idea how it is affecting anything.
Sometimes I forget that I am not actually the one living with it. I am the mother of a child who has no idea that
he is different, he just knows that he doesn’t like it and doesn’t know how to
deal with it.
Autism is annoying because
it will never go away. It will always be
there staring at you, smiling at you, laughing at you, crying with you.
I could go on and on about how annoying it is right now but
that would take all day and then I would be annoyed that I wasted a whole day
blogging instead of accomplishing anything.
So to end for today I’ll just leave you with 3 words.
Until Next Time…
Do you think your child may have Autism Spectrum Disorder and don't know what you should do next? Check out this link for some helpful tips. http://www.nationalautismresources.com/i-think-my-child-has-autism-what-do-i-do.html
