Paybacks are hell-- and this time I need your help-- thanks

[Guest guest]

Dear Listmates,For all you old timers still fighting and in the trenches, this is your October pep talk so you hang in there and keep going. I always found this time of the school year very challenging. After the newness of the school year had worn off; we would enter what I referred to as the Halloween Slump. For some reason usually regressed around this time, although I'm not sure why. But keep going, they can get better no matter how weird they act or how many times they try to make you hate them.I know paybacks are hell, but now I need your help with my book about ’s recovery. I hope his story will change the outcome for many children. I bet some of you thought it would never happen since I have been talking about it forever. But the book is almost complete. I have two chapters that still need your input and stories. These chapters are called “Stories of Hope” and “ I Didn’t Sign Up for This… Stories from the Ledge. “ Please send your stories. Here’s what I need for the book:Stories of HopeThis will consist of inspiring stories of kids who have overcome autism. It will also include children not quite there yet, but on the road to recovery and greatly improving. I would like to incorporate not only NIDS stories, but stories from anyone who has had success and will inspire others to not give up. The other chapter will be called:I Didn’t Sign Up for This--Stories from the Ledge.This is your chance to turn the bad times into something good that will help someone else. When a parent has a particularly tough day on the ledge; maybe they will reread a story from this chapter so they can say maybe my kid isn’t so bad. We have each been on the ledge at one time or another This is just part of being in the A club. We each know what it feels like to have a kid with autism and have experienced those moments awful and embarrassing that we never shared them with anyone. Every parent (living in this hell) has had a situation that could have caused us to jump off the ledge, if one had been close by. Without much effort, our kids can make us ready to leap. Even worse, are the times our children are standing right behind us, trying to push us off. Please send me those stories. I know our kids are tough so we don’t have much time to breathe or do much else. However, your story does not have to be long, a paragraph or two is great. So give me your worst experiences that will make us laugh, cry or possibly both. It might be a story you’ve never told anyone. But don’t worry; I decided to change the names of the kids so the identity of the child will remain private. I have a particularly bad one about that happened in middle school. But you won’t know it was him because I will use another name. I’m not sure I did this to protect him or me (I almost killed him.) I would like each of these to be done parent to parent–basically told in a first person voice like you are talking to another parent. Most importantly it should be what it feels like to have a kid-- the anguish and embarrassment and or even the absurdity of what our kids come up. You can’t make this kind of stuff up. One mom calls this chapter, " Things a Parent Should Never Have to Say to Their Child " . (I just may have to steal that line for the book.) The most outrageous thing she told her child was, “No, it's never acceptable to wipe your butt on the dining room tablecloth even if we are out of toilet paper.” Sometimes it is not only our kids that drive us to the ledge but rather the doctors we have to deal with that make things worse rather than better. The last story in the chapter will be about that. After the book is complete, Sian (best editor ever) and I will dig in for the not so fun editing phase. Thanks in advance for your help,MarciaP.S. Please send an address with your stories so I can send a release form. Also, a phone number would be helpful so I can check to make sure any changes I make are okay with you. And include the fictitious name you would like me to use for your child.

[Guest guest]

Hi Marcia Good luck wth the book, no good at story telling always comes out wrong!!!Sent from my iPhone

Dear Listmates,For all you old timers still fighting and in the trenches, this is your October pep talk so you hang in there and keep going. I always found this time of the school year very challenging. After the newness of the school year had worn off; we would enter what I referred to as the Halloween Slump. For some reason usually regressed around this time, although I'm not sure why. But keep going, they can get better no matter how weird they act or how many times they try to make you hate them.I know paybacks are hell, but now I need your help with my book about ’s recovery. I hope his story will change the outcome for many children. I bet some of you thought it would never happen since I have been talking about it forever. But the book is almost complete. I have two chapters that still need your input and stories. These chapters are called “Stories of Hope†and “ I Didn’t Sign Up for This… Stories from the Ledge. “ Please send your stories. Here’s what I need for the book:Stories of HopeThis will consist of inspiring stories of kids who have overcome autism. It will also include children not quite there yet, but on the road to recovery and greatly improving. I would like to incorporate not only NIDS stories, but stories from anyone who has had success and will inspire others to not give up. The other chapter will be called:I Didn’t Sign Up for This--Stories from the Ledge.This is your chance to turn the bad times into something good that will help someone else. When a parent has a particularly tough day on the ledge; maybe they will reread a story from this chapter so they can say maybe my kid isn’t so bad. We have each been on the ledge at one time or another This is just part of being in the A club. We each know what it feels like to have a kid with autism and have experienced those moments awful and embarrassing that we never shared them with anyone. Every parent (living in this hell) has had a situation that could have caused us to jump off the ledge, if one had been close by. Without much effort, our kids can make us ready to leap. Even worse, are the times our children are standing right behind us, trying to push us off. Please send me those stories. I know our kids are tough so we don’t have much time to breathe or do much else. However, your story does not have to be long, a paragraph or two is great. So give me your worst experiences that will make us laugh, cry or possibly both. It might be a story you’ve never told anyone. But don’t worry; I decided to change the names of the kids so the identity of the child will remain private. I have a particularly bad one about that happened in middle school. But you won’t know it was him because I will use another name. I’m not sure I did this to protect him or me (I almost killed him.) I would like each of these to be done parent to parent–basically told in a first person voice like you are talking to another parent. Most importantly it should be what it feels like to have a kid-- the anguish and embarrassment and or even the absurdity of what our kids come up. You can’t make this kind of stuff up. One mom calls this chapter, "Things a Parent Should Never Have to Say to Their Child". (I just may have to steal that line for the book.) The most outrageous thing she told her child was, “No, it's never acceptable to wipe your butt on the dining room tablecloth even if we are out of toilet paper.†Sometimes it is not only our kids that drive us to the ledge but rather the doctors we have to deal with that make things worse rather than better. The last story in the chapter will be about that. After the book is complete, Sian (best editor ever) and I will dig in for the not so fun editing phase. Thanks in advance for your help,MarciaP.S. Please send an address with your stories so I can send a release form. Also, a phone number would be helpful so I can check to make sure any changes I make are okay with you. And include the fictitious name you would like me to use for your child.