In the war for attention, funding, and autonomy among autistic people and caregivers, there are various armies. There are the autistic self-advocates (SAs), who have been loud in demanding a seat at the Internet and policymaking tables. In addition to condemning Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) (a widely-adoped, oftentimes relentless therapy for training autistic people to…
Author: Maya
Mother to two beautiful children, multitasker extraordinaire, co-founder of a non-profit and employee of large corporation, wife to an opinionated, supportive husband, avid avoider of political discussions.
Helping My Mother Die
Yup. I’m going there. And nope, this post has nothing to do with autism. Also, this post is definitely going to be a bummer. Here we go… When my mother suggested that I write an essay titled “Watching My Mother Kick the Bucket”, I confessed to her that the idea–if not the title–had already occurred…
2021 is the Year I’m Getting to Know My 13 Year Old Son
TL;DR. My autistic son can now communicate with us while using a stenciled “letter board”. But we’re not at a Lifetime movie happy ending quite yet. Some people learned how to bake bread or grow their own food during the pandemic. Having given up city life to launch a farm in 2014, I had already…
The Treatment Conundrum
When autism parents meet each other for the first time, it’s pretty common to sniff each other’s butts–conversationally speaking–to determine what kind of autism parent the other one is. What treatments has the other pursued? Where do they fall on the vaccine debate? What do they think caused their child’s autism? Or do they not…
Awareness
Another Autism Awareness month is upon us. And for some reason, I feel duty-bound to gather together the scraps of life lessons I’m stumbled across during the past year. Autism is for Life. Each time I am required to submit a form or show up to an office and display my son for the purposes…
Disability Olympics / I’m a Terrible Person
Last night, as I staggered back to bed after cleaning my son up from a middle-of-the-night GI tract-related mess (four sheet changes in less than 24 hours – new record!), I checked social media. I’ve slipped a little lately, just scraping off the top of the feed during “desperate” moments (which may or may not…
I’m fine. How are you?
I’ve taken a break from posting on Facebook lately. It’s only been 12 days, and I did not put my hand to my forehead and share a vague and ominous status update about why I need to step away, so maybe no one has noticed. I did so after experiencing a particularly sharp emotional meltdown…
What I’ve Gained & Lost: Autism Awareness and Acceptance
So I clearly can’t speak for my son. I’m not even going to try. And since I have no idea what he thinks, other than when he is happy, sad, sleepy, hungry, or angry in a general sort of way, I am putting everything that follows within a bracket: I am not attempting to speak for…
Surviving the Middle of Nowhere
We’re not actually in the middle of nowhere. That’s just what it feels like to our friends in DC. We’re actually only about 65 miles from our old house, and can be back on Capitol Hill in about an hour and 15 minutes. See? Not that far. (But just far enough to flee to, should…
For a Good Time, Call Us. Our Standards are Pretty Low.
Lately, it has occurred to me to that we don’t give a shit about much, and that is a good thing. Of course, we shower, keep the house clean, and pay our bills. We feed our children and tell them that we love them. We schedule the right doctors’ appointments and react appropriately to serious…