The girls have been asking why they didn’t get to see the princesses or the castle at Disney. Explaining there is something wrong with Grandpa’s health isn’t something little ones understand. We left early, not using one day of our passes, because my father wasn’t feeling well. We still don’t…
The Autistic Me
My 2012 MacBook Pro has been having problems for almost a year, but I’ve managed to keep it running as other systems in our house finally failed. I’ve had the case apart a few times, which you can thankfully do with the older MacBook Pro. The system tends to overheat…
Parenting stress is unlike other stress. Somehow, I manage to think more clearly — or not think — and get things done. I still need my wife to help sometimes, but I manage the basics when our children are involved. Earlier in the trip, I imagined the most panic I’d…
Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Monterey, Morro Bay, the Central Valley, and a fly over the Golden Gate Bridge at night. That was our ten-day (or eleven-day) vacation trip to California for the summer of 2018. Daddy and two excited little girls met up with friends and family for much of…
Podcast 0013; Season 01, Episode 13; July 20, 2018 This episode of The Autistic Me Podcast reflects on our summer so far, which has featured a lot of travel and enrichment activities for our daughters. In the podcast, I also explore my own prejudices and how we must overcome those through…
Halfway through NeuroTribes and it primarily serves to reinforce history I knew after reading so much over the last 12 years about autism, yet the books adds important details. Overall, the names largely missing from history (often women) are given a nod by Silberman in his history of the autism community, something…
“How do you deal with parenthood?” I understand the question. Children are everything my autistic traits dislike: chaos, noise, arguments, dirt, smells, and much more. There’s one stressor after another. Every night I reflect on what I did wrong that particular day. There’s an endless sense that I could and…
Podcast 0012; Season 01, Episode 12; June 12, 2018 During the summer months, I need to ease off some of my workload to better manage time with family. After this podcast was recorded, I found that I did need to take a break from our littlest one’s pre-K graduation because…
Eugenics worry me, which is why I dislike selective abortions and movements within some national healthcare systems to pay for such terminations of likely or potentially disabled individuals. And, at least in a few nations of Europe, disabled people have terminated their lives — legally, under assisted suicide laws —…
“You need to smile more.” Professor in graduate school. “You need to stop seeing all the negatives around you.” Colleague at a university. “Why are you always depressed?” Teacher at a conference. The perception that autistics are depressed is a common stereotype. Commenting on things I want to fix, noticing…