Blog - Page 258 of 1611

#Autism Parenting: It’s time to give yourself a little credit

Autism Parents have to be many, many things. Unfortunately, one of the most common things they are is hard on themselves. The average Autism parent is about a million times harder on themselves than anyone else possibly could be. We tend to hold ourselves to an impossible standard and blame ourselves for the struggles our kids with Autism often face. There's even a part of us that feels insane amounts of guilt because we can't take away the struggles our kids face on a daily basis. We often beat ourselves up for things we have absolutely zero control over because... Well, truthfully, I don't know why we do that but I do know it's wrong and unhealthy. We'll tell you all the ways our kids are amazing without any trouble…

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May 26, 2018

Elliott / Emmett John / My thoughts

Today was the last of school

The boys celebrated their last day of school today. Both had great days and both have mixed feelings about the summer break. They're both excited to be out of school for the summer but at the same time, they're going to miss it as well. If I hadn't mentioned this before (but I have about a gazillion times), kids with Autism don't usually do well with change. It's something that parents like myself, dread more than many other things in our lives because a disruption in one's routine can lead to massive meltdowns. Routine is paramount to maintaining everyone's sanity but it's not always easy or even possible. With that in mind, we are bracing ourselves for a challenging week or so. Hopefully, everything will balance out in short order…

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May 26, 2018

My thoughts / The Did You Knows of Autism Parenting

The Did You Knows of #Autism Parenting: The Price of Admission

I hope this helps people to A) realize they aren't alone in their struggle, if they feel that way currently and B) to better understand what goes into making decisions that on the surface may not make sense to them. Autism parenting is very difficult and the decisions we are tasked with making can be even moreso. Feel free to share this with anyone who will benefit. Every share helps. ☺

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May 25, 2018

Inspirational Posts / My thoughts

An important truth about being an #Autism parent

As an Autism parent, life is exceptionally stressful and that's on the good days. When things in life get rocky, for whatever reason, my body and mind simply want to shutdown. It's a self-preservation thing and unfortunately, being an Autism Parent doesn't leave a whole lot of room for shutting down. There are challenges in our everyday lives that I simply haven't been able to overcome and sometimes, that knowledge weighs heavier on me. I turn forty in August and I'm almost compulsively evaluating my life. There are things that I've accepted will never happen and things that need to happen, regardless of the challenge involved. I'm okay with the things I've accepted won't happen but I struggle with the things I've failed to yet accomplish. I'm not sleeping or…

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May 25, 2018

Featured / Vivint Gives Back

Preparing for a crazy Summer in our not-so-safe neighborhood with @VivintGivesBack

Sometimes I share my experience with Vivint Gives Back in regards to helping prevent wandering. There's also another side to our Vivint Smart Home System, provided to my family, and that's security. We live in a neighborhood that has on countless occasions, proved itself to be very unsafe. We've been involved in drive by shootings, people have been stabbed in front of our house and we hear gunshots almost every single day. Our car was just recently broken into again as well. It gets scary, especially for the kids. As summer approaches, we are working on some commonsense safety measures (that I'm not getting any into in this particular post) but aside from commonsense, we rely heavily on our Vivint Smart Home System to help keep us safe. We have…

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May 24, 2018

Gavin / My thoughts / Schizophrenia

I’m worried Gavin’s becoming paronoid

Something Gavin brought up during his visit with Dr. Moodley in Pediatric Neurology, had nothing to do with why he was there. Dr. Moodley was trying to involve Gavin in as much of his health care as was possible. Clearly it's not possible but I like that he tried anyway. When asked if there was anything bothering him, meaning anything Dr. Moodley deals with, not just anything, Gavin replied with an answer that has me worried. One of the things that we have to be very careful with in regards to Gavin being Schizophrenic, is watching for signs of paronoia. The only step beyond Schizophrenia is Paronoid Schizophrenia. That's not a good step at all for those keeping track. Gavin's never really shown signs of paronoia, at least consistently enough…

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May 24, 2018

Cleveland Clinic / Lizze / My thoughts

My wife suffers from severe chronic pain but we have new hope

I don't write much about Lizze, but not because there isn't anything to say or I don't want to talk about her. She has her own blog where she likes to share her own story and I totally respect that. Sometimes however, it's important to say something anyway because she plays an invaluable role in our daily lives and does so while facing significant challenges of her own. For those that aren't aware or maybe need a reminder, Lizze lives with severe chronic pain. She's lived this way for countless years now and it absolutely takes a toll on her. She's struggled with migraines for most of her life and was officially diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, after extensive testing back in 2005. She recently described her pain by saying that every…

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May 24, 2018

Autism Parenting Struggles / Emmett John / My thoughts

I desperately need a break from his school related anxieties

This is a interesting story that involves Emmett, his teachers and a six month old homework packet. The other day, one of Emmett's teachers approached me right before school let out because she wanted to give me a heads up in regards to a conversation she'd had with Emmett that day. She knows how Emmett struggles with communicating in certain situations and wanted me to know first hand, what happened so Lizze and I could reassure him if need be. Back in January of this year, Emmett missed a bunch of school do to illness. There was a ton of makeup work and somehow, one of his packets never got turned in. All she did was ask him if he knew where it was and he told her it was…

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May 23, 2018