We are legion

They say we're having an explosion of Autism with more kids than ever before being diagnosed as somewhere on the Spectrum.
I don't doubt this, having met a plethora of other parents exploring the new pathway marked Autism; each time you meet someone new you look at each other as members of an exclusive club with secrets that only the other person would fully understand.

Friends try to understand but sometimes the unrelenting routines and therapies get too dull for social niceties and somewhere along the way we lose a bit of our social skills to deal with shallow chitchat at parties with people we barely know over subjects we couldn't care less about.
The day I wandered into a friend's house and she was planning an Autistic kids specific party we knew we were both beyond melting point when we agreed not to have any neurotypicals over.
Since I began homeschooling my son the amount of parents with kids on the Spectrum who have also chosen to home educate their children is amazing; we attend excursions and my son strikes up friendships with others who are obviously on the Spectrum.
Parents rush forward to correct or excuse their child's knowledgeable chattiness and you can see their physical sigh of relief and the weight shift from their shoulders when you reassure them with,
"It's ok, we get that too. My son's on the Spectrum."
My son's paediatrician actually said he thought it was probably the best idea for many on the Spectrum, to be home schooled where the kids get 1:1 education without the anxiety-fuelling external distractions like teachers, kids and everything that makes up a mainstream school.