Sometimes ‘Special Needs’ Just Need To Stay Home
If’ I pay $400 plus dollars to fly on an airplane, I certainly don’t want my flight to be filled with constant chaos and a kid screaming and throwing a tantrum as was the case of the Autistic toddler that got kicked off an airplane in Raleigh Durham recently.
I guess you could say my kids have a special need to breathe – they have asthma. But that doesn’t give me the right to walk in any and every public place and demand they do everything to accommodate them, but rather it’s my place as the parent to plan accordingly to make sure my kids needs are met.
I think the United States has latched on to the whole if it’s out of the ordinary it must be an illness or disease. Now I’m not saying this particular kid wasn’t truly autistic, but I do believe there are many kids who are being diagnosed as autistic who are genuinely nothing more then flaming brats and because these kids are brats, the worlds is supposed to do everything to make them more comfortable?
I don’t think so.
If this parent of an autistic child were sitting next to a person on the flight who had a problem with gas or even packing a colostomy bag – I wonder just how accepting she would have been? Or would it have been necessary, in her mind, to have the person moved to accommodate her child?
I have to say that in a case such as this, IF the child MAY pose a problem to other passengers, I believe it’s the parents responsibility to visit the doctor to get some sort of sedative that will help make their flying experience a bit easier. If the parent can’t do that – then driving isn’t too crowded and they should be the one cooped up in a small space with their own screaming child.
There’s lots more I can say on the whole overuse of special needs syndrome that’s making life so annoying for normal people – but that’s for another day.
** Please note that my beef isn’t so much about the kid having autism as it is about the mother showboating and demanding that FAA regulations be broken or altered just for her. Everyone seems to be missing the point and will not likely read through all the comments to figure that out **
I have Aspergers and my mum and dad learnt a loooong time ago what *can* happen to me if I have to go on a commerical flight; hence, Mum always calls the airline in advance to tell them and have it noted on our booking, tells both the ground crew and flight crew about my…err…difficulties etc. We’re not in the USA but have always found airlines etc go out of their way to make things as easy as possible for me…but they can’t help if people aren’t willing to be open & honest about their ’special needs’ in advance! I would *never* get on a ‘plane with other people pretending that I am ‘normal’ or that ‘normal’ is what I need or am entitled to.
(I do definitely agree that all the American e-friends I have seem to have a syndrome to blame for absolutely everything though! Your kid is a total, spoilt, out-of-control brat but of course they can’t help it – or be held responsible for it – can they, because they have been diagnosed with ‘total, spoilt, out-of-control brat syndrome’ !?!)
I too was once like you, I would see a “different” or “difficult” child and I would judge that mother as being unfit, when I was completely unaware of the situation. Then I had a child with autism myself and the veil was lifted. Your intolerance and lack of understanding of what a person with autism experiences and what their parents go through everyday, without respite, the overwhelming seige that is this condition. Naturally a mother who has a child like this must understand that their child has to be FITTED into a society that just doesn’t get it, and make allowances for other people’s intolerance, however, each new situation presents itself differently and it can be almost impossible to predict how a child will react in any given situation. I you would prefer that we undertook the Final Solution and rid the world of these little annoyances you poor Normal people have to Put Up With, there wouldn’t be anyone left. There are quite a number of things that I find outrageous in so called Normal people, does that make it okay if I judge them and ask for them to be controlled and removed eg loud Ipod, tail-gating drivers, people that wear ridiculous fashions, loud talkers, personal space fillers, door-to-doo salepeople, neighbours, and anyone who gets in my face. Do not forget these are children you are talking about ridding yourself of, start with the disabled where does it end? You lucky lucky girl you ahev been granted normalcy, but that doesn’t explain your socail disabilty..a lack of empathy, which ironically is one of the things a person with autism supposedly lacks, you should have youself tested.