April is Autism Awareness month. Building awareness is a wonderful thing. Admittedly, it was not the reason why I started this blog. I started blogging just over 2 years ago, for the purpose of sharing our journey with family back home. Our families are a bit old school, and many don't participate in Facebook. A blog seemed like a good place to post pictures and share our experiences with the kids. I quickly realized that blogging was a place for me to put my hopes, fears, and joys about raising 2 sons with Autism. It became cathartic, at times, to finally admit that while it is almost always a joyful journey, there are those times when it can be a challenging journey. For me, this blog is all about working through those challenges, and finding the joy.
Like every family, there are challenging times. It's those tough and challenging times that makes the joyful times so much sweeter. Every milestone or hurdle that my kids have crossed, have allowed us to enjoy the here and now moments. When they were young, we didn't just hide them away. We got out into the community. And getting out there, showed us just how different our kids were from their peers.
Each outing we take with the kids, it's with the goal to stretch out their horizons a little further. We are aware that people can take their kids to Disney and spend hours at the parks. But we were not that family. Our kids are different. We could spend 2 hours, then 3, then 4. Each trip, we saw improvement. Each new city trip involves new progress. We can do Broadway shows now. We can ride crowded subways in New York City. We can spend 8 hours at a Comic Con convention.
I am aware that my kids are different almost every day. I'm sitting in my scrapbook room right now, and can hear one kid repeating phrases from some movie. He was listing all of Steven Spielberg's movies not too long ago. My other son is acting out a scene from a movie. Or maybe he is making up his own movie. I wouldn't put it past him. There might be some hand flapping and jumping around on tip toes. And there are certainly sound effects involved in everything that they do. Because that's how we roll in this house. My kids are different. But they are beautifully different. I love the activity in this house. Oh I'm sure if you were sitting here, some of you might be scratching your head, or confused by certain behavior. But these little "quirks" are what make them beautifully different.
Being different is not a bad thing. Sure, it has it's challenges. We have taught the kids not to let some of their "quirks" out in public. I hesitate to use the word quirk, because it sounds negative. But, there are certainly some negative effects to letting out some of their quirks in public. We have a "try not to stim in public" policy. Stimming is repetitive behaviors, such as physical movements or sounds. And stimming in public will get you stared at. Or if you are stimming on the streets of crowded NYC, a scream from a local to "move!" Not being able to control stimming behavior, will impact your ability to be employable. And we are all about building skills to be employable.
I have come to embrace the differences. This is one crazy, fun, vibrant, creative house. And one long Trivial Pursuit game, where you never know what fact your kid is going to trip you up on. The differences in my kids, are what shape their totally awesome personalities. They are beautifully different because of their Autism. Harnessing their differences, and using their skills is what will make them employable in the future. Don't fear being different. Embrace it!
