7 Comments

  1. jonicorcoran
    December 11, 2017 @ 8:43 am

    I look forward to your blog each Monday. My grandson is on the spectrum.

    Reply

  2. Molly
    December 11, 2017 @ 8:54 am

    Thank you for telling us these things. It helps me understand my son so much better. I hope you get to eat a lot of your Aunt’s cookies this season?.

    Reply

  3. Jeannie Weller
    December 11, 2017 @ 9:42 am

    Jack, you explained it perfectly. Hopefully everyone who gives you gifts will read what you wrote and will understand the time you need. Merry Christmas!!!

    Reply

  4. Theresa Hudson
    December 11, 2017 @ 9:42 am

    Thank you for letting us walk with you. This particular piece is so poignant to me. Our expectations are too high for a lot of people even if they aren’t autistic. Jack is so fortunate that you are his Mom. And I know that you feel the same.

    Reply

  5. Sheri
    December 11, 2017 @ 10:13 am

    Thank you for sharing.
    We handle the gift problem in our house by buying for each other from a specific Amazon Wish list. We have an amount per person aggreement. There are very few surprises. Only in our Christmas Stockings…because Santa doesn’t use Amazon ?.
    We all open together, so no one is the centre of attention. There are 8x of us all together, the youngest is 12. Everyone else is grown up.

    Meal times are trickier…but that’s an entirely different story altogether.

    I love to bake too! For some reason, my kids will not allow me to put baking things on my wish list.

    Happy Christmas
    From an Autism Mum

    Reply

  6. Amy
    December 12, 2017 @ 11:47 am

    Is it hard, as you attempt to speak for your son to understand him better, for you to distinguish which thoughts and feelings are truly his and which are yours? For example, has he told you he wishes he didn’t have autism and he wishes he were ‘normal?’ Is that how he would have started his list of wishes?
    So much of this shows love and empathy and an effort to understand. But it might be more honest and accurate if you spoke as yourself trying to understand your son rather than assuming you speak for your son. If your mother spoke for you back when you were thirteen- no matter how much she genuinely loved you and cared to get it right- how much would she have missed? And how frustrating would that have been for you if she publicly posted your struggles while inevitably getting some things wrong?
    Now imagine the world regularly doesn’t hear your voice, maybe because you struggle to speak, maybe because your love language is your special interests and people don’t have the patience to listen, maybe because people are conditioned to think what isn’t ‘normal’ it isn’t valid, maybe because you are content to enjoy your thoughts quietly and don’t need to put them into words. But for some reason the people around you find your brain a puzzle that they need to solve so they set about identifying ‘pieces’ of your identity and jamming the pieces together and showing each other- Here, this is who she is. No no I think this is who she is.
    Understanding and compassion are beautiful and important- but I think there’s a risk in speaking for someone else and harm in othering people with words like ‘normal.’
    Blessings on your journey

    Reply

  7. StephsTwoGirls (@stephstwogirls)
    December 14, 2017 @ 6:27 pm

    Kaboom Foamtastic sounds great 🙂 and really, 83 DVDs? That’s impressive!

    Reply

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