About Me

I am the proud mother of 6 children. 5 of our children have autism. We do not feel our world has ended, but just begun. We do not chelate, intervene biochemically, give shots of any kind, practice ABA, etc. We treat them as we treat any humanbeing. We treat them with kindness and respect and expect the same from them. They are exceptional children.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

OPENING A BLIND EYE....

.....TO AUTISM....!!!

Well, specifically to Autistic Adults....

I have read, continually, that a certain group (and we all know who
this group is...so I will not dignify them with a link) want so be shown
the Autistic Adults....
I believe the question is...
"If Autism is not new, then where are all of the Adults with Autism"???

OPEN YOUR EYES.....they are right in front of you....

They are at the grocery store..
They are at the Walmart and the Target....
They are at the malls....
They are living under my roof....and soon to be living under yours....
They are working in factories, computer companies, shopping malls, retail stores,
and local businesses.
They are living on their own..or in group homes...or some, remain in their homes with
their parents.

While shopping with my 18-year-old daughter, Caitlin, yesterday....a woman
gave Cady a sneer as she walked by humming and buzzing.
I approached the woman and sneered back at her...okay, the Texas Mama in
me came out....it was a moment.
She asked me, "Do you have a problem"...??
I answered, "As a matter of fact, I do"!! "What would possess you to look at my
beautiful daughter with such disgust"?
This woman answered, "In my day, she would have been put away in one of them
hospitals".....
I told this woman, "Thank God we have come so far from "your day"!!
I then explained that Caitlin had Autism...she then told me how you didn't see
those folks when they were growing up...."they either lived with their folks or
were put away in one of them places".....

If you type in the words "State institutions" or "State Hospitals" and read about
these places where they put the "mentally disabled" or "Mentally Fragile" patients...
you would see where they started out to be nice replacements for home living, but
soon became so over-crowded with the "mentally unstable"...they became "horror
houses" for the disabled.
Wall-to-wall children and young adults....most labeled "mentally retarded", because
the diagnosis of Autism was not yet discovered. I truly believe these non-verbal, non-toilet
trained, rocking and head-banging children would have been labeled autistic now.. They
would have the wonders of an education and therapies that were non-existent then.
They would now be able to be functioning adults, instead of the majority of them
dying young in a place where no one could see them....hidden behind large brick buildings
with very high stone gates.....

Every time I go out, I see these amazing humans and thank God were are walking and
working amongst them...This gives me great hope for the future of our children with Autism....
because, believe me....they will become adults, just like the Autistic children that have come
before them. Luckily for them, they are no longer hidden by blind eyes!!!!

7 comments:

Kim Wombles said...

So glad to see you posting again! I learned to not see the looks long ago when out with my oldest. And now, when I go out with the three of them, I continue to ignore anything other than pleasant comments and looks. My children may be busily doing their own thing as we walk the aisles, one of them toe walking and hand flapping, two of the three humming or singing outright and my oldest muttering, but they are well-behaved and I am proud of them. They are my children and I don't and won't notice anything less than positive looks, because, otherwise, I too would have to go Texas Mama up someone's arse. :-)

Angel said...

beautifully written! I shared this with my mother, who often gets into verbal scraps with persons that stare, glare or make comments about my son in public.

I tend to ignore, trying to teach my children that ignoring a bully is quite effective. :P

Barbie1158 said...

I am lucky enough that I have yet to see anyone staring at my son. Maybe I should say lucky for them that I haven't noticed anyone. I know I would rip them a new one without a second thought. It's ridiculous that there are even people out there that thinks Autistic adults "don't exist", just because they don't want them to, because it fits their theories. I hope one day people will get it and snap back to reality.

Fleecy said...

It bothers me very much that some people have that attitude of someone should be put in "one of them hospitals" just because they look different. Not even doing anybody any harm, they look different so they should be locked up? What IS that?!

Thank you for posting this, and standing up to that woman.

B Gann said...

This kind of public encounter hasn't happened to me. But as the psychoditally protective father of a young ASD daughter, I think it will be an unhappy day for someone when/if it happens.

To your point, I thank God every day that it's the 21st century and we can get the therapies we need now, and I hold out the hope that my daughter will enter adulthood with all the tools she needs to lead a so-called "normal" life. The people that think locking others away for life, rather than investing the time and money needed to make them into productive, tax-paying members of society, should themselves have been locked up in one of them schools for a few more years.

Great post, more power to you!

Lyn said...

Hello. Nice to see your blog again.
I don't know how folks can walk up to people and say stuff that's so rude. That's just wrong...

Unknown said...

I live in Alabama smack-dab in the middle of the Bible belt, which makes life with an Autistic son more interesting. Especially when nosy busy-bodies have tried to "exorcise the devil" out of my son TWICE!!! David ignored it the first time (age 4), but when it happened again at age 8 (also outside the grocery store, What's up with that?), he thought SHE was the mentally deficient person and who am I to argue with a young man who can see it like it is at age 8?