When I was very young, perhaps eight years old, I was possessed of a terrible and all-consuming fear of floods. I dreamt of walls of water that swallowed my family and me. I lay in my bed, atop the scratchy wool blanket I had inherited from my dad’s days in...
Cultural Activity
Self Love in a Time of Turmoil
The first days of school have passed and for many kids, the initial anxiety of the new school year has subsided and they are settling into a routine. For me, this time period was the most stressful of them all. My son, Joe, typically would start school (with much coercion),...
Halloween Break
Holidays are tough for Lily, and not that Halloween is a holiday in the same vein as Thanksgiving or Christmas are, but it’s an “event” and there are rules and procedures and “goings-on”. Still, if there was a holiday for her, a holiday where she is free to move around...
Tips for an Inclusive Halloween
Halloween is a relatively new phenomenon where I live. Every October for the past twenty years, Australian kids have been waging a desperate campaign to bring ghosts and goblins into the national consciousness (it doesn’t help that pumpkins are pretty scarce in spring). Progress has been slow, so we’re still...
Sometimes You Win One
There are times, and these seem to occur with increasing frequency, that raising an autistic child pushes our parenting decisions into what might be viewed as a “no win.” Certainly we had our share of those decisions with our older daughter too, but it seems as if they’re more common...
Finding Safe and Supportive Spaces Online
Fifteen years ago when my kids were diagnosed with autism, online resources and support were really hard to find. Parents often felt isolated and disconnected from others going through the same challenges. Today there’s the opposite problem – information and support groups are everywhere! So the problem has now become how to find reliable...
The Danger is on the Inside
My family has just finished a hot, exciting, and very dusty summer. We undertook a massive home renovation that included new windows and floors, raising a sunken living room, and gutting and replacing one of the bathrooms and the kitchen. Exhausting as the whole process has been, it’s also been...
Destigmatizing Depression
This month, I intended on writing a post with a lighter, humorous look at living with depression. But, with the sudden death of comedic actor Robin Williams, I chose to talk about helping educate others about this often misunderstood disease. We’ve all been there baring our souls attempting to share...
Introducing Your Kids to Their New Teacher
Every year on the first day of school it was traditional for a group of my parent buddies to meet at a local restaurant for a celebratory lunch, to offer thanks for surviving another long summer break with their sanity intact. I never joined them, because at our house the...
Talking About Difficult Things
My youngest son, Carter, is almost twelve. When I say that sentence to myself, I say it in the deep, reverberating voice of Morgan Freeman, with a little foreboding in it: my son it almost twelve-twelve-twelve. With 12 approaching, his body has begun to change. Where most parents have trouble...