April is an interesting time for those of us closely connected to autism. Recognized as Autism Awareness Month, this time of year puts a large aspect of our daily lives in the forefront of mainstream media. Speeches abound, as do news features that tend to speculate wildly about many facets of the disability. Unfortunately, many of these speeches and features are taken as gospel by folks who don't understand the first thing about autism, people who don't take the time to fact check or put things in context. Calls and emails pour in from well-meaning acquaintances who saw a two-and-a-half-minute TV spot and now fancy themselves experts on the subject.
In short, April is hard.
And I'm just gonna go ahead and say the thing we're not supposed to say as parents of children with a disability: I'm tired. When left to my own devices, I begin to question the wisdom of constantly looking for teachable moments and making it my life's mission to correct all of the poorly researched, dime-a-dozen rhetoric people spout off to me every day. Sometimes it seems as though I'm just picking fights with people who don't really give a fig about the nuts and bolts; they just want to parrot their mass media tidbits and pat themselves on the back for being so accepting.
Don't get me wrong: I will continue to advocate for The Princess and others like her; of course I will. I guess this is really just a long-winded way of telling you that I'm not going to be preaching the same canned tidbits you see on your local news spots this April.
I will, however, talk about awareness in bite-sized pieces for the rest of this month. And, if I'm being perfectly honest, probably for as long as I live. Because I'm an autism momma, and that's what we do...whether we mean to or not.
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