When you have a blog...you have no editor. You do have an edit button, but you have to find your own mistakes and/or bad choices. That is unless you have family who reads your blog and is shocked and appalled by what you have written and they feel the need to point it out to you.
Hence...one of my family members brought to my attention something rather ugly that I said in a post about one of my children. It wasn't exactly about the child -but the child's behavior. I love my children dearly. I hope that comes across here. I do not however always "like" their behavior -in fact sometimes I hate it. I am appalled by it. I want to run away from it. Therefore my writing may not come across as this loving, rosy picture of a life that I wish I had, but I don't.
One day my children may read this blog. There may be some things that I write that they don't like. I hope that when and if they do read it, they can see the big picture. Mom is writing this blog to help educate the world about the reality of Aspergers -the good, the bad and the ugly. Temple Grandin's story wasn't all pretty. She had some pretty bad meltdowns at times. Her story was real and so is ours.
These are my confessions! Yes...like Usher (the singer/songwriter -and his confessions were a bit scandalous as well). Thus this is called "Confessions of An Aspergers Mom". It's not called "What is your personal Opinion?" (although you are welcome to leave them as a comment) or "Life is Rosy at My House!"
I have read other blogs in the autism community where mothers come across as angelic. Where the love of their children shines through so clearly -your heart is warmed by it. There are blogs that are all about inspiration -what huge accomplishments children with autism have made. There are completely educational, very professionally written blogs that can be quite frankly, rather intimidating. Then there are those that fall somewhere in-between -the real nitty gritty, the nuts and bolts of every day life and the struggle of raising special needs children, or the not so pretty side of what having a disability Aspergers is really like. I love them all. Each blog has something special to bring to the table. I love being a part of this community.
Yes -I use creative license at times in order to make the writing humorous. Exaggeration may be used to make a point. That is my prerogative as a writer. For me writing is a therapeutic release. Most things that I say are a matter of opinion -my opinion and I am entitled to it.
Writing is an Art. If an artist sits around thinking about what others will think of their work -they may very well be too afraid to allow the world to see their art. If the artist looks at other's work and says, "Wow -that is so good! I could never be that good." There would be no art, or what we have would be extremely limited.
There is room in the world for every artist, every story and every struggle -even if the picture isn't always so pretty.
Logging you in...
Adelaide Dupont · 285 weeks ago
And for those of us who knew and appreciated these points in high school to a greater or lesser extent - always good to have a refresher and feel them through the current and future generations who we survived to be able to see.
I especially appreciated points 5, 7 and 10.
And young women not settling or settling down yet is a good thing.
"It's never too late to live our dreams" - but it may be too early for some of them!
And 8 of course.
nicole · 243 weeks ago
Risa · 230 weeks ago
LAH · 221 weeks ago
Maira L. Coral · 216 weeks ago
I was looking for information for my Multi-Genre Disability Research Project from my Early Childhood Special Education class on the web, when suddenly I came across your blog. I started reading this out of curiosity and I want to tell you that as you said yourself, you will not be Amanda Gorman, but you managed to make me shed some tears, perhaps because I felt totally identified with your words, especially in the part that you speak of your son. My son also has Asperger's syndrome, he is 19 years old and he is in the second semester of College. Also like yours, he takes classes from home, likewise my eldest daughter is also taking college classes from her room. At the same time, that I work as a preschool teacher from my kitchen through a computer, my husband sleeps in the room during the day because he works at night. Also in the afternoons I myself take virtual school classes. I am a 51-year-old Latin woman who began to learn the English language as adult, so maybe you find some deficiencies in my writing, however, I was very moved by how proud you express yourself about your son. Referent your mother, I liked the humorous tone that you give when your talk about her, so I did not want to miss this opportunity and stopped my assignments for a moment to let you know that your words do make a difference, since they reach the heart of at least those who have opportunity to read you. I want confess you that is the most long I have written to someone I don't know, because your words inspired me, thank you...
Gavin Bollard · 209 weeks ago
Thanks for this post. I've been very distracted of late and so this was how I found out about our friend Kate. Kate's struggles were very real but they were so constant and so wide-ranging that it was difficult for people around her to address them. I think it's going to take a while longer for me to process all this.
I learned so much from Kate because she was always quick to point out the many injustices in the world. In her glory days, she was very much a crusader and she cared for everyone. Over the years, as her situation took its toll, I came to realise that it was the fact that she couldn't be put in a single specific category, that made the system fail her. She needed help that they weren't set up to provide.
She needed more care and she needed to be less alone. I'm so sorry that this has happened.
For a long while we were corresponding almost every day but a couple of months ago, I realised that she had become so stressed that nearly every interaction I had with her was starting to trigger her. I backed away to give her a bit more space. She only had a little time that she could stand to be online and there were too many things that she wanted to do in that time. I thought that by taking a step back, she could reach out to more people who might be geographically closer and able to assist.
Kate was a beautiful soul and she will be sorely missed by all of us.
diyalabs6192603 11p · 192 weeks ago
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Spoil your cat · 121 weeks ago
Many of these living arrangement aren't good, and many of the people who run those places really don't have the residents' best interest at heart. Those places are like old age homes and foster homes, where you sometimes hear horror stories. They're hard to trust. But then there are good ones, of course.
The best thing for an autistic adult is either to go on living at home or working and renting an apartment and living independently, but that isn't always an option.
Duncan · 112 weeks ago