Last Saturday at Ausblogcon I unexpectantly had lunch with two top chicks....

...the authors of The Australian Autism Handbook.
Click HERE to have a listen to their conversation (from 2008) with Richard Fidler.

There I was, noming the delish food during the conference lunchbreak when this lovely lady said ,
"I think you should be sitting here with us,"
So, being the obedient little soul that I am (shut up) I trotted over and fell into a fabulous conversation with ( or more listened to) these ladies.

Seana Smith is gregarious, witty and generous with her knowledge while Benison O'Reilly is a tad quieter but equally witty and shares another quality with her co-author ; neither of them pull any punches when it comes to discussing ASD.

After we realised we all had a child on the Spectrum we compared notes on age of diagnosis, different state regulations and funding, rates of progress and how there wasn't a lot of home grown literature for parenting ASD teens or social groups.

We discussed the various bits and bobs of growing/maturing kids on the Spectrum; they shared how some families are negotiating the mine field that is Sex! Raging Hormones! Mood Swings! Obsessions! and all the other usual suspects any teen suddenly discovers in those crucial years but which present a whole different box of dice when it comes to keeping ASD teens safe and on the right side of the law.

We talked, laughed, shared tales, laughed at stuff only parents of ASD kids can find funny and generally passed a lovely time together.

We swapped blog addys and I recommended some blogs to them, particularly Magneto Bold Too then we parted company back to the conference but it was one of the most pleasant unexpected luncheon dates I've ever had!

It's the little things

Just when you think things are crappy something comes along to slap you back in your box and say "Hey, chicky, be grateful for what you got, OK?"
Oh, alright, that's my weird-arse inner voice saying that and threatening to slap me silly six ways from Sunday when I'm in danger of wallowing in Mother Guilt.
And let me just say that inner voice sounds suspiciously like my mother in full flight.
Not pretty.

Ignorance is not bliss

When the diagnosis came down the pipe and we got the brand-new shiny label stuck on our child's forehead we went looking for answers to the squillions of questions that were rampaging through our minds.
I don't think I stopped reading or researching once we'd got our heads around the meaning behind the label; books and news articles were recommended from friends and chased up, diets and vitamin supplements researched then discussed with doctors, biographies and autobiographies read and discussed at length.
Heck, I even (briefly) researched freakazoid Bettelheim and his 'refrigerator mother' concept just to have information to fight the ignorance still lingering today which is his destructive legacy to those on the Spectrum.

Too cheerful, too maudlin, too too much!

Someone, an acquaintance who barely knew me, once accused me of being overly cheerful and optimistic in light of my sons demands and disabilities.
Wow.
I'd gone from feeling that my daily routine bored everyone to tears, that some might feel that I was moaning too much and now I was 'too cheerful'.

I haz the urge to purge

This has become such a fantastic outlet for purging myself.
You probably noticed the rush of posts, one after the other.
The weight is shifting from my shoulders, the years of struggling and fighting against an unseen enemy who wasn't there, not really, in the end.
This is so cathartic and is washing my innards clean after bottling it all up after so long I'm babbling to get it all out.
When I first started exploring the idea of blogging every man and his dog had a blog on Autism, who the feck would want to read mine as well?
Now, meh, I don't care if anyone reads it or not, it's for me to talk about my beautiful boy and his achievements, to boast about him and be proud, to marvel at what he has managed to do in the face of adversity.
And the adversity wasn't the Spectrum but other people.