I reject the puzzle concept too. Down with Puzzles! :-X

Sorry if that was extreme. I just don't like being recognized as a puzzle piece.

Thank-you.   I still have that project.

This Light It Up Blue campaign video on autism kept telling me there was an error when I tried to tell an autistic that supported Autism Speaks not to... there are many autistics that support it and we need to reach out to them!

The message I was unable to post: @Maplenesss Buy an orange lightbulb. Autism Speaks wants to abort us before we are born. they do not help autistics. Please visit the channel called AutismSpeaksV1ds. Also, visit aspiesforfreedom.com

I mean, it's a wonderful song, too bad it's for Autism Squeaks.

Please don't tell me that neurotypicals are trying to hijack our holiday.  If so, we're going to need desperate measures.  Drastic problems call for drastic measures.

If they attack our holiday! We need an anti-holiday! a moment of protest, a riot on the net (just not as violent as a riot in real life)

^^ This.

You know when I first came here and saw people saying this I suspected histrionics but the more I'm reading the news about people who kill their kids for being autistic and trying to talk to people about how autism really isn't the horrific disease and curse it is made out to be and they argue with me about how it really is terrible the more I'm seeing its really true.  And then I tell people, "*I* have Asperger's and so does my son" and then they say "Oh well but you aren't what we are talking about you don't go through THE HORRIBLE TORTURES there POOR POOR PARENTS DO" but I KNOW some of these people do.  Their kids honestly, really just act up a bit and behave differently from other children, and they act like it is the HUGEST burden and THE END OF THE WORLD and apologize for them constantly and act all ashamed and send them to ABA therapy all the time.  It's like the counselor who asked me and my wife in all seriousness one day if we ever get "any respite" from our son.  "No, what do you mean?"  "Well I know how DIFFICULT it can be with a special needs child like him who is so difficult and all."  I explained he was actually a very easy child to raise and she clearly thought I was lying or trying to put a brave face on it and kept pushing.  She wanted to help me get "outside help" or something so I could have a break from his horrible autisticness.  I felt like I was speaking a foreign language.  But I guess most parents think my totally awesome child is some horrific burden.  I think that is terribly sad.

It seems to me from reading this and other threads about Aspies who are raising our AS children that we appear to manage at it far better than the NTs who have AS children.  I wonder if that's because we understand our own people better so that whatever it is about AS that bothers the NTs is no longer an issue, or whether it's just because we tend to take a more logical approach and love our kids without constantly trying to fit them into a "normal dreamchild" mold?  Or perhaps it's because we're not brainwashed into automatically thinking "AS = Tragedy" because we know we're not a tragedy?

My daughter's Aspie, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I found her to be fine to raise, certainly a lot less trouble then the NT preschoolers I taught for years.  Those little kids can be sweet, but there were more than a few who were entitled little brats, lying, manipulative and aggressive.  

I'm so glad I had an autistic child.  I find her far easier to understand than her NT peers!  

Alison

This post was last modified: 08-17-2011 01:03 AM by Alison.

Life is only a filter, sometimes its hard to use the translation part of it.

Lady Babalon, although it is actually sad, your post made me laugh. I got exactly he same thing. I don't even try and tell people anymore that my son is maybe different, but actually easy to raise once you know him. A lot easier than his stroppy NT teenage sister, who consciously looks for conflicts. I know it's just a phase and all that, and she can be lovable too, but frankly I'd rather have respite from her once in a while...

It's okay, I found it a little funny too, we still laugh at her

And yeah, all children are difficult to raise.  NT children are just difficult in different directions people are more expecting them to be.  For all my kid does "unusual" things he's very rule following.  The most annoying thing about taking a walk with him, for example, is he balks at crossing the street at an opportune moment if its at an angle in the middle of the street.  It fries his brain, you can watch.  It isn't an approved crosswalk!  OMG!  Hee!  So I'm not like, worried he will be out partying and doing drugs with the popular kids like a lot of parents of teens are, that would be AGAINST THE RULES, my worries and issues tend to different directions.

This is so true.  It was the same when I was a teenager, and now my daughter: no interest in drugs, alcohol, wild parties and unprotected sex.  It seems to me that a lot of NTs will simply copy what others are doing, and we do seem to be resistant to that sort of dangerous peer pressure.  

Another thing Aspies find difficult, at least in my experience, is driving.  Not so much because it's difficult to manage a car, as such, but because of the morons we have to share the road with.  (And I use the term "share" in it's loosest form.)  My dauther still is not particularly comfortable driving a car.  She can, but prefers not to, since it's a skill where you have to not only know the road rules, but have to also think like an NT when driving.  They typically don't follow the rules, or only do it when it suits them or when they can see a police car about.  The rest of the time, it seems, it's chaos theory: speed up if the traffic lights turn amber (so they can don't have to stop, apparently, why the tearing hurry?), and if anybody is driving at the speed limit, pass them while leaning on the horn or giving a two finger salute out the window.  

That's one reason why I feel it's not the Asperger's per se that makes life difficult: it's the bewildering herd culture we're forced to live in and expected to adapt to.  We're like the cats forced to live with wolves, and expected to go "woof"!

Alison

Hi guys, I have a confession to make. That person who created that facebook event (Autistic Pride Day: Wear Blue on this Day!)......that was me. I'm Anthony O'Hagan. I learned from my mistake though. Check this link out, I'm sure you guys will like this better. I'm so sorry for this misunderstanding.

http://www.facebook.com/events/156839031086314/

This is one of my constant irritations. They're somehow completely incapable of following the rules, which make absolute sense. This includes police drivers when not required to speed etc.
I've learned to use my horn and shout in sign a lot.
People also try to race me when I'm in my own car because it's an old rally car in bright colours. This makes even less sense when considering that the morons who want to race are driving Saxos and Chinquinchentos with huge exhausts, lawnmower engines and only half the amount of gears as mine. They also demonstrate very poor control over their motorised tin cans.
It's not just kids though, adults are as bad. Every time I drive, EVERY TIME, I have to take some kind of evasive action to avoid a smash up with a people carrier or estate(station wagon?) or a 4x4 because they drive like utter cocks. Yesterday I nearly killed a woman and 2 children because she didn't even slow down for a junction that she was required to stop at. She bounced over the path(sidewalk) and I had to slam on my brakes to not go into the side of her. She was completely oblivious to the world around her.

I deal with stuff like that whenever I bring in carts at work. I'm surprised I haven't been hit and killed yet. Busy days are the worst because it's so hard to keep the carts in stock; you want to bring in a lot of carts at once so they won't be gone by the time you bring the next load in, but can't because it's hard to steer that many carts at once (turning them is especially hard; they don't stay together very well), the parking lot is all full and no driver is going to stop or even slow down to let you get by or get the runaway carts back in line.
Also, I'm 18 and don't even have a driver's permit yet because of things like this.

This post was last modified: 12-28-2011 07:51 PM by shrinkingviolet.