Look at the front page of Mothering's website - Page 2

[JBug]

I actually just saw that "Autism Everyday" vid, thanks to a link in one of the other threads that was mentioned in this post. I had never seen it before.

That was gutting. It made my stomach hurt. I would be willing to bet a large amount of money that those poor parents had no idea how that video was going to be edited to make them look. All of their worries and frustrations manipulated to look like that's their entire life.

I doubt there are any parents out there - autistic or NT kids - who haven't had awful moments like that. Thankfully, the majority of us don't have to watch our darkest moments exploited for money.

Just ... ugh.

[mamarhu]

I am always glad to see this discussion revived. Autism has such a bad reputation. When I was beginning to look into special needs adoption, I said that just about the only condition I didn't feel I could handle was autism. Well, wouldn't you know it! My biological son is diagnosed with autism! Of course, in that lovely ironic way that fate has...

So now fast forward a few years, and this diagnosed kid at 11, is by far my easiest; the one with perhaps the brightest future. We have done no therapy, just given him the freedom to find his own way (with support) in the world. I do not know where his path will lead him, but this morning he went downtown at 6:30 to serve breakfast at a soup kitchen - entirely his idea, and he had to ask my friend to drive him, as I had an appointment. Hmmmm, no social skills, no empathy. Yup, right. Yes, he is obsessing, but it is about poverty and hunger, and he wants to fix things! Maybe we need a few more obsessive autistics to repair the mess we neuro-typicals have made of the world.

[Neth Naneth]

Originally Posted by acannon

Allison Singer, one of the people in charge of Autism Speaks (vice-president of something, I forget what) said in a movie called Autism Everyday, put out by Autism Speaks, that she considered driving her and her autistic daughter off of a bridge and she didn't because she had another daughter who is not autistic who she needed to care for, too.

OMG That is so disturbing.

[mamajama]

This topic is really interesting to me. I don't have experience with autism in my life first-hand and was not aware of the issues surrounding various groups until recently. I do think that if Autism Speaks is seen as discriminatory and a 'hate group" by autistic people on MDC and their friends and families, then it shouldn't be advertised on these pages.

[Brigianna]

Does Mothering have an official stance on autism? I know that the magazine has run articles about "cures" and the notion that it is environmentally caused, but it doesn't seem to be an official position in the way that, for instance, circumcision is.

[ollineeba]

Originally Posted by mamarhu

So now fast forward a few years, and this diagnosed kid at 11, is by far my easiest; the one with perhaps the brightest future. We have done no therapy, just given him the freedom to find his own way (with support) in the world. I do not know where his path will lead him, but this morning he went downtown at 6:30 to serve breakfast at a soup kitchen - entirely his idea, and he had to ask my friend to drive him, as I had an appointment. Hmmmm, no social skills, no empathy. Yup, right. Yes, he is obsessing, but it is about poverty and hunger, and he wants to fix things! Maybe we need a few more obsessive autistics to repair the mess we neuro-typicals have made of the world.

Your son sounds like a wonderful young man.