Top Ten Things About Autism

1. Alex’s sweet nature. He chatters and babbles if he doesn’t get his way and he does kind of run around in the house but his wants are fairly simple. Will work for chocolate chip cookies. Is delighted with a trip to Borders.

Photo courtesy of Jelene (flickr.com)

2. Great excuse not to do things. “Oh, we’d love to… only YOU know. Alex.” Smile wistfully. Shrug. “We just can’t.” Gets us out of various family things or social events we don’t feel like going to.

3. Blessed silence. Of course I love when my children talk to me. Alex rarely does and sometimes that’s a plus. We can sit together in companionable silence without the constant wall of sound you get from some kids.

4. Great excuse for being late. “Alex couldn’t find his favorite book.” Acceptable, because everything with Alex takes longer. If he talked, it wouldn’t take as long. But he doesn’t. Of course sometimes it really is his fault. Quite often, really. So don’t think we’re just using him as an excuse whenever it’s convenient. We would never do that.

5. Free babysitting. Because of Alex’s Medicaid waiver, a respite worker comes every Saturday evening for a few hours to take care of him while we go out.

6. We get to meet a lot of people and parents we wouldn’t have met otherwise. Alex’s last service coordinator is a wonderful young woman who left the service world to go into fashion.

7. Automatic respect from people who say, “I could never do it!” because they’ve never had to. They’d be able to – they just don’t know it, so they think there’s something special about you.

8. You slow down and look at things very carefully – words on a newspaper page, water splashing in a fountain, alphabet blocks – and appreciate more details than you saw before.

9. No longer worried about buying a lamp that you can’t figure out how to turn on. Alex can figure out any light fixture.

10. The purest birthday celebration. Last year we had cupcakes and lemonade in one of Alex’s favorite playgrounds. We’re planning a repeat this year with a slightly larger group.