Tell me everything you know about autism, and in exchange I’ll tell you all I know about a boy. Tell me how people with autism can’t experience empathy. Tell me how they hate wearing clothes with tags. Tell me about the sensory processing, and the anxiety, and the meltdowns. And I will tell you about […]
Over the past fifteen years, I’ve gotten into some pretty awkward situations with my son Jack. He has asked women if they were pregnant when they weren’t, and suggested a man in Rite-Aid pick better pants. He has told his teacher her skirt was ugly, and asked the cashier if her mother was alive. You see, […]
Hi. My name is Carrie. I am married to a man named Joe. We have five kids, and our second son has autism. When it comes to autism, there are many, many challenges. Anxiety. Rigidity. Obscurity. Paperwork. Oh, how I loathe the paperwork. I mean, it is endless. The top of the forms are all […]
Did you see him? Did you see a tall boy standing off in the corner? He might have been biting his fingernails. He does that a lot. He set up the chairs. Carefully, he lined them all in a row to make room for you elderly aunts, your college friends, and your soon-to-be in-laws. Ten […]
I have a son named Jack. He is fifteen years old. He is over six feet, two inches tall, which is not all that tall. But when you see him, there is something about his size that takes your breath away. I can’t explain it. He has autism. He was born with it. He is […]
I have to be honest. There were times I tried to contain it, but containing autism is a little like trying to hold a flame between your fingers, or a tornado inside of a bucket. It doesn’t work. It burns. The bucket topples over and you are left with a lot of lightning and wind. […]
The other day I saw an article that said it was time to get rid of the label special needs. My son has special needs. His needs are special. He has a diagnosis, or a label. He has a label because he has autism and we had no other way to explain his unusual behavior and […]
Season’s greetings, friends and family! I am happy to report our family had an amazing 2019! Joe and I are doing well, and all five kids are healthy and happy. They sure are growing up fast! When they were toddlers, it seemed like their fingers were everywhere—my bagel, in my cup of coffee, in my […]
The other day I was in the mall with my son Jack, and a woman asked me what it’s like to raise a child with autism. I had just told him to stop touching the mannequins and to keep his body still and we weren’t going to talk about the wind-chill factor in Russia anymore. […]
Hi. My name is Carrie. I live in New Hampshire. I have five kids, and my second son is diagnosed with autism. His name is Jack. He is fifteen. He towers way above me and I am not exactly small. Jack’s autism looks like this: he is verbal, he has tremendous anxiety, he loves pancakes, […]