AutismLink: Editorial: Gossip Girls

[Guest guest]

AutismLink wrote: Gossip GirlsI like to share things that happen to me and in the lives of my children so that others in similar situations may be able to feel not so alone. It's truly sad, the things we have to go through in our lives, not because of our children, but because of other "adults" who exponentially compound the problems associated with autism. The Stepford Wives, the Gossip Girls..... you know who I'm talking about -- those moms and dads who don't want their kids around "those kinds" of kids.It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that our kids are often mesmerized by video games and cartoons. Sometimes, those video games,

while seemingly inocuous, involve shooting down an entire camp of star wars droids. Sometimes, god forbid, we even play war! games with Nerf guns! Forgive me, but I can recall when I was a kid playing with my Barbie dolls in the sandbox (we had a day at the beach) and my brother bringing his little plastic army guys and tanks for a beach landing and blowing up my whole Barbie Beach Day. It's a good thing we didn't have the attitude of today's parents back then. He would be an outcast, a Unibomber in the making. Ironically, he turned out to be the Vice President of a major fortune 500 company. (I still razz him about that and he still owes me some Barbies.)What makes me angry, though, are these do-gooder-panties-in-a-bunch parents who get uptight about kids talking about video game violence. Agreed, it's not a good topic, and agreed, given recent national tragedies it shouldn't be taken lightly. But try to get

that through to a child with autism who is obsessed with shoot-em-up Star Wars games. If you told a typical child to stop i! t because it's socially inappropriate and makes adults and other child ren afraid, it would take about once, possibly twice for it to sink in. They have social awareness. They understand. Our kids don't.You can tell a typical child something once, and they get it, but I can say with some degree of certainty that it takes me about 100 times to get through to my child with autism the social ramifications of talking about and/or drawing pictures about blowing up clone droids (and/or other edifices and human beings.)So of course, while we're diligently working on this problem at home, someone calls the principal of the school to complain about my little unibomber in the making. And, as you've probably guessed, he may as well have been hog tied and branded with "BAD KID" on his forehead. And

me?? They used the "BAD PARENT" brand on me. My forehead is still smarting.Parents are already asking for their preciously perfect neurotypical children to NO! T be seated in the vicinity of my son. The kids are probably whispering among themselves as I type to "stay away from him" because he's bad. It's truly worse than Wisteria Lane!! It's days like this that make me want to move to Montana and cyber school.The irony here is this -- we want our kids to be part of this social world -- why? To be part of a world where intolerance and bigotry still rule after all these years of having kids in wheelchairs and with disabilities on Sesame Street. Clearly that message isn't getting through either. The parents tell their children, "oh we should be nice, that child has special needs" because it's politically correct, but their actions tell their true thoughts. I WANT THAT KID AWAY FROM MY PERFECT LITTLE

ANGEL.Well, I don't know about you other autism moms and dads out there -- but I'm not so sure I want MY kids around THEIRS. Social skills deficit! s are apparently not uncommon in neurotypicals either. WaeltermannPresident, AutismLinkComments are welcome: cindy@... Join our listserv! Don't get your news second hand! Get LINKED! http://lists.autismlink.com/lists