I Would Like To Clarify....

a few things, actually.

Why am I on here so darn late? For the second night in a row, I cannot sleep so what better way to pass my wide-awake time than to clear up some things on this blog? Lately, my thoughts come in blurbs at a mile a minute and in order to keep up, I just type and type away and unfortunately, that sometimes results in not really producing an accurate translation of the thoughts in my head to words on the screen. In other words, I may have said some things recently that came out wrong or possibly sounded offensive.

With that said, I apologize for anything that may have come out as being offensive or other misconceptions I may have lead anyone who is reading to believe. I will also add that occasionally (if you ask my husband, he would probably tell you it's more than occasionally) I exaggerate things. Yes, it's true and that brings us to the first clarification I would like to make.

Awhile back, Reiss' preschool class took a school field trip to the zoo. James, Reiss, Milla, and I went along with them but in our own vehicle. In the blog post where I detailed the trip, I mentioned HERE about Reiss running away from us and getting "about a hundred yards into his sprint." To be more accurate, it was about one-hundred feet or so - not the length of a football field, as I would have people reading that particular post believe. However, what did make that incident so scary was that we were in a very heavily foliaged (is that even a word?) area and Reiss ran around a curve where we could not see him.

Next....I mentioned HERE just last week something about Reiss' particular autism making it so he does not understand the concept of money. This has been on my mind since I posted it but I have not been sure how to correct what I am trying to say. It's not that Reiss doesn't understand the concept of money because he has the form of autism spectrum disorder that he has, it's that he does not understand the concept of money and I think it is due to him having autism. Generally, four-year-olds have some concept of money and that it gets them what they want. Reiss knows that when you go to a store, you pay for things and by paying for them, you hand the cashier either money or a credit card but he also thinks this is optional as is often stated by him voicing, "Don't wanna pay for the........" I'm still not sure I am saying what I mean but suffice it to say that having been around enough typical four-year-olds to see how they react with money, I know that Reiss reacts differently and his relationship with money is different than that of a typical four-year-old.

And finally, in reply to my post I made just earlier this evening, Viv said:
"It isn't always easy for us *normal* moms either. My three year old is also a runner. As in he is GONE if there is even a single moment that he isn't restrained in any public place, or for that matter even our front yard. My whole life seems to revolve around keeping my sanity and *trying* to keep my household running......."

Viv has been reading and commenting on my posts long enough for me to feel confident in stating that I don't think she meant for this to sting even though it did just a little. And I don't mean it stung because she said anything hurtful. It stung for me to realize that perhaps my posts are conveying an attitude that comes off as me thinking parents of typical children have it easy. If that is the case, I do apologize and not only to Viv, but to anyone else who may be thinking the same. It is certainly not my intent to offend anyone nor try to make anyone think I feel others have it way easier than I do.

But..............

Yes, there is a "but." I would like to point out a major difference in my child running away and a typical child running away from his or her parent. Whereas a typical child can most likely communicate what his name is and/or his parents' names to someone who has found him after running from a parent, my son cannot. Or to be more specific, Reiss can tell you his name but probably won't, much less tell you what mine or my husband's names are. When we practice this type of conversation at home, we only get the correct answer out of him maybe fifty percent of the time if we are lucky. That's with us, his parents, so it's very likely he won't tell someone who is a stranger. Furthermore, he has pronomial confusion and echolalia, so even if he chooses to reply to a stranger's questions, it would most likely be in the form of repeating the question asked back to the person doing the asking or by him answering in a way that they would not understand. For instance, if you ask Reiss "Where is your mommy?" His answer would either be something along the lines of "Where is your mommy?" or "Your mommy is over there." He means "My mommy is over there." but that's not how he would say it.

So, while I do understand that every parent - even parents of typical children - has their own struggles of some kind or another, I would like to point out that parents of children with autism seem to have a lot of the same problems but compounded in ways that can be difficult to understand or even fathom if one is not familiar with children on the autism spectrum. That's not to say "My life is rougher than yours." or "Parents of typical children have it easy." It just means parents of children with autism often experience issues that parents with typical children will fortunately never have to deal with handling.