The Toxicity of “Autism Parent” Memoirs
Shannon Rosawww.squidalicious.com
“When others don’t understand our [autistic] experiences and don’t understand how our actions are meaningful responses to them, they may think our actions don’t make sense, and try to control them in ways that are harmful to us.” –Elizabeth Bartmess
I think it should be OK to write about our autistic kids. I do. Because I think other parents, especially those who aren’t autistic themselves or who are new to autism, need parent role models who do their best to understand and love their autistic kids, and be the parents those kids need them to be. These role models are needed because media messages and social attitudes about autism and autistic people are consistently fear-ridden and awful, so parents who have never heard anything about autism besides negativity need guidance for accepting who their kids are, so they can avoid blaming their kids for who they aren’t. Those parents also need permission to give mainstream social expectations a flying middle finger.
Read the article here
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