Dear Jack, Listen, we need to talk about something that’s been driving me crazy lately. You really need to stop swearing. I can’t take it anymore. I am so tired of hearing you say bad words all the time. You know, like the other night when I asked you over and over to put your […]
Ever since I was little, I wished I was an artist. I’ve always wanted to be able to draw the pictures I see in my mind with perfect clarity on a white canvas or blank sheet of paper. Landscapes. Sunsets. Women with parasols, children splashing in puddles. Autism. But I am terrible at drawing. Noses […]
Last Monday it was raining out, so I decided to drive down to the bus stop and pick up the kids. I sat in my car and surfed the Internet, and I came across a link called, “100 Wise Words for Everyone,” written by an economics teacher for his high school seniors. I had a […]
Dear Lauren, First of all, I’d like to apologize for taking so long to respond to your e-mail. You see, when I read the words Jack and play date in the same message, I got a little nervous. But I really did enjoy meeting you last year at that ski place in Vermont. I mean, […]
My 10-year old son has autism. And we give him anti-anxiety medicine every day. If someone had told me fifteen years ago—back when I was a smart, chic, kind of fit twenty-something newlywed—that my new husband Joe and I would one day give our child a tiny white pill every night, well, I might have […]
Dear God, Sometimes, bad things happen. Things like not getting a promotion you wanted or a hearing a diagnosis you didn’t, car trouble or bad weather or divorce. And then one day, something really, really bad happens. Something so bad, it makes you wonder why you ever thought anything else in your life was bad. […]
The first chapter of the book I wrote is a letter to myself the day Jack was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. It’s everything I wish I knew about him and me and autism way back in November of 2006, when he was a chubby 18-month old who made me frantic because he wouldn’t talk or point […]
Last week I was surfing the Internet and came across a headline proclaiming autism and circumcision are linked. I couldn’t help myself. I laughed out loud. In no certain order, I have read the following explanations for autism over the years: Autism is caused by mercury. Autism is caused by lead. Autism begins with poor maternal […]
I’ve been waiting and waiting to tell everyone my exciting announcement. (No, I am not pregnant. And whoever just said that is in big trouble.) Although it does feel like I just delivered a baby, except minus the ooky delivery stuff and the nursing and the teeny little newborn onesies. Actually, I it’s like I […]
I happen to know a police officer. He’s forty two years old, and he is six feet, four inches tall. He has blue eyes and sandy brown hair that he keeps very, very short. His name is John. One morning when John was about two, he was walking with his mother in the vegetable garden […]