A series on parental stress, marriage, divorce, single parenting, step parenting, siblings, and more.
Today we begin our series on autism and family life.
Warning: this will be a hard look at the hard things about autism.
With 1 in 88 kids diagnosed today, there is tremendous impact on a growing number of families. While more awareness of autism exists, we believe more attention is due to the increasing needs of families trying to do their best with a scarcity of supports and resources. A huge bubble of kids, an “autism baby boom” is making its way to young adulthood with parents showing the toll of years of caregiving.
At Seattle Children’s Autism Center, we see families from all walks of life. High-tech, rural, high income, barely scraping by, families with one child with autism, families with six children with autism, families who come from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Autism does not discriminate. It is an equal opportunity disorder!
In addition to evaluating and treating children with autism, we pride ourselves on equally serving the rest of the family. Everyday we are witness to weary parents doing right by their children, driving from one therapy appointment to the next, juggling work and home and siblings. With only so much time in the day and autism taking such a central role in their lives, something has to give, something has to go on the back burner.
We decided to explore more closely what life is like living with autism. Parents often find themselves at a loss for words to describe it to those treating their children, to friends and even to their own extended family. We hope that this series will bring to light the need for more support for families. In order to do that, we need to paint the picture, tell the story of why there is a need and what the needs are.
We’ve done our best to break this broad topic into digestible pieces yet some blogs are longer than others. Bear with us and stick with us to the end. Collectively, we think the series may prove valuable for those who live with and treat those living with autism.
I’m looking forward to this blog series and planning on sharing it with my family. I’m hopeful it will help illustrate exactly how tough it is emotionally and physically to parent an autistic child. Often it gets sugar coated and I feel as though my family doesn’t fully understand our struggles and may even think that I exagerate them. I’m hoping that you’ll tackle the humiliation aspect of when your child does something horrendous in public for all to see and judge. I’m also hoping that you’ll takcle the sensory issues that often go along with autism and lastly I’m really hoping that you can highlight the digestive/encopresis issues that many kids have. If you want to tackle the really hard topics, this is one of them that no one wants to talk about but for those of us dealing with it, it can leave us feeling isolated.
What a great resource. I’m not yet married but we are at a point where we are living together and I’m very involved in his autistic sons life. His ex spouse change genders and is now dating a man, so I’m the only woman among 3 men on top of everything. It’s been challenging but rewarding. We communicate well but he worries a lot that I’ll grow fed up with the situation and leave. I think I have the fortitude to go on but it would be nice to connect with others in a similar situation, other step parents in challenging situations. Anyway, I’ve been rambling. Good resource here.
Thanks Beth! Glad you found this series helpful and that you recognize the importance of seeking support. No matter how strong we are, there will be times when we need to lean on others. Take good care of YOU too!