philreich
TheBrownDog
- Mar 2, 2014
- 58,978
- 148,701
- AFL Club
- Port Adelaide
I posted this on TPFP a couple of years ago, and it received a fairly positive response, so I thought I'd reproduce it here.
My wife and I have 2 wonderful boys (aged 16 and 15). They're both perfectly healthy, but they're both autistic. We take the attitude that it's not as if they've got cancer, and may not see Christmas - I recently read about a baby girl in Queensland, who died of cancer, aged only 2. So it's all relative, and there's always somebody who's FAR worse off than you are.
My older son Jason is a remarkable kid. His autism is not as severe as that of my younger son Brian, but like most (if not all) autistic people, he's got certain traits that set him apart from anybody else I've ever met. For instance, he's got a morbid fear of bare feet!!! In the middle of winter, if somebody in the family has nothing on their feet, he goes nuts, and demands that the offender at least puts socks on. One day, he was in the lounge, and Brian walked into the room with naked feet. Jason yelled out, "Mum - can you get Brian out of here: he's flashing his bare feet at me."
He came out with a classic recently. He's a deep thinker, and he asked me about what it's like to be married - in particular, he wanted to know about love making. He said, "So you have to take ALL of your clothes off when you're having sex?" I just said, "Yes mate." I then nearly fell off my chair when he added, "Does that include your shoes and socks?"
School kids don't take too kindly to meeting kids who are a little bit different, and throughout his school career, Jason has copped more than his fair share of rough treatment. Autistic people often take what people say to them LITERALLY, and one or two of his class mates have taken advantage of this by saying to him things like, "Jason - I'm gonna eat you." The poor kid thought he was going to die!!!
On the positive side of the ledger, Jason has a phenomenal mathematical brain. Please bear in mind that he doesn't use a calculator - he and I were driving one night, when out of the blue he blurts out, "Dad - what's 10 times 2016?" Easy one - I said, "20160." You could tell his mind was ticking over at a million miles an hour - he then said, "Oh that's right - that's 64 times 315, isn't it?" I nearly ran up a stobie pole.
On the other hand, Brian is just hard work. He's a gorgeous kid, but wow - is he a full time job. On the Cosby Show in the 1980's, Cliff Huxtable (played by Bill Cosby) once said to his son Theo, "Son - I brought you into this world, and I'll take you out of it." At times, I've had similar thoughts about Brian
Brian is still in nappies. I'm hoping he finally gets the idea before Port wins another flag (which hopefully isn't too far away!!!), but I'm not holding my breath. On numerous occasions, we've left him in the bath for a bit too long, and upon our return to the bathroom, the colour of the water and/or the walls has changed to brown. I won't elaborate on this disgusting subject: you get the idea!!!
Brian is also a wanderer (if given the opportunity). I was sick in bed one day, and my wife accidentally left the front door open for a few seconds - in that instant, Brian took his chance to escape. After he'd been missing for a while, Jason cheered us up by saying mournfully, "I no longer have a brother." (yeah thanks son - you sure know how to make us feel better!!!)
A policeman found Brian a couple of hours later, playing on the swings in the park across the road. He simply wanted to go and play, and because everybody was too busy to take him, he just decided to go off by himself. We're now older and more vigilant: security has been stepped up to ensure that a similar incident doesn't occur again.
Positively, Brian is a wonderful singer. His speech vocabulary is fairly limited, but when he decides to burst into song, it puts a broad smile on our faces - it's a delightful moment.
I could say a lot more, but I don't want to bore everybody for too long. Let me finish by re-emphasising the fact that an autistic diagnosis is NOT a death sentence. It's a shock when your child is first diagnosed (our 2 were both diagnosed a couple of years before they went to school), but autistic kids can bring you a heap of joy, as well as a mountain of challenges. If you suspect that your child may have this condition, let me urge you to NOT put it off, but go to Autism SA (that's if you're in Adelaide - if you're elsewhere, your circumstances may be different) and find out for sure. Autism SA is a wonderful organisation - they've given us an enormous amount of support over the years: we've got so much to be thankful for.
My wife and I have 2 wonderful boys (aged 16 and 15). They're both perfectly healthy, but they're both autistic. We take the attitude that it's not as if they've got cancer, and may not see Christmas - I recently read about a baby girl in Queensland, who died of cancer, aged only 2. So it's all relative, and there's always somebody who's FAR worse off than you are.
My older son Jason is a remarkable kid. His autism is not as severe as that of my younger son Brian, but like most (if not all) autistic people, he's got certain traits that set him apart from anybody else I've ever met. For instance, he's got a morbid fear of bare feet!!! In the middle of winter, if somebody in the family has nothing on their feet, he goes nuts, and demands that the offender at least puts socks on. One day, he was in the lounge, and Brian walked into the room with naked feet. Jason yelled out, "Mum - can you get Brian out of here: he's flashing his bare feet at me."
He came out with a classic recently. He's a deep thinker, and he asked me about what it's like to be married - in particular, he wanted to know about love making. He said, "So you have to take ALL of your clothes off when you're having sex?" I just said, "Yes mate." I then nearly fell off my chair when he added, "Does that include your shoes and socks?"
School kids don't take too kindly to meeting kids who are a little bit different, and throughout his school career, Jason has copped more than his fair share of rough treatment. Autistic people often take what people say to them LITERALLY, and one or two of his class mates have taken advantage of this by saying to him things like, "Jason - I'm gonna eat you." The poor kid thought he was going to die!!!
On the positive side of the ledger, Jason has a phenomenal mathematical brain. Please bear in mind that he doesn't use a calculator - he and I were driving one night, when out of the blue he blurts out, "Dad - what's 10 times 2016?" Easy one - I said, "20160." You could tell his mind was ticking over at a million miles an hour - he then said, "Oh that's right - that's 64 times 315, isn't it?" I nearly ran up a stobie pole.
On the other hand, Brian is just hard work. He's a gorgeous kid, but wow - is he a full time job. On the Cosby Show in the 1980's, Cliff Huxtable (played by Bill Cosby) once said to his son Theo, "Son - I brought you into this world, and I'll take you out of it." At times, I've had similar thoughts about Brian
Brian is still in nappies. I'm hoping he finally gets the idea before Port wins another flag (which hopefully isn't too far away!!!), but I'm not holding my breath. On numerous occasions, we've left him in the bath for a bit too long, and upon our return to the bathroom, the colour of the water and/or the walls has changed to brown. I won't elaborate on this disgusting subject: you get the idea!!!
Brian is also a wanderer (if given the opportunity). I was sick in bed one day, and my wife accidentally left the front door open for a few seconds - in that instant, Brian took his chance to escape. After he'd been missing for a while, Jason cheered us up by saying mournfully, "I no longer have a brother." (yeah thanks son - you sure know how to make us feel better!!!)
A policeman found Brian a couple of hours later, playing on the swings in the park across the road. He simply wanted to go and play, and because everybody was too busy to take him, he just decided to go off by himself. We're now older and more vigilant: security has been stepped up to ensure that a similar incident doesn't occur again.
Positively, Brian is a wonderful singer. His speech vocabulary is fairly limited, but when he decides to burst into song, it puts a broad smile on our faces - it's a delightful moment.
I could say a lot more, but I don't want to bore everybody for too long. Let me finish by re-emphasising the fact that an autistic diagnosis is NOT a death sentence. It's a shock when your child is first diagnosed (our 2 were both diagnosed a couple of years before they went to school), but autistic kids can bring you a heap of joy, as well as a mountain of challenges. If you suspect that your child may have this condition, let me urge you to NOT put it off, but go to Autism SA (that's if you're in Adelaide - if you're elsewhere, your circumstances may be different) and find out for sure. Autism SA is a wonderful organisation - they've given us an enormous amount of support over the years: we've got so much to be thankful for.