Family and Friends

We'll call him Billy

The stop sign just up the street from our house does more than control vehicle traffic. It controls a little piece of my kids’ lives. A stop sign should add an element of predictability to the cars passing by. It should slow them down. It should make drivers more aware of pedestrians and the kids who swarm the neighborhood. It doesn’t. If anything it makes traffic less predictable. If…
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Beth

Interpreting Beth

Many of you know Beth has high functioning autism. Some of you know Beth. A few of you are familiar with Beth’s low tolerance for discomfort of any kind, and the hypochondria that accompanies it.More than once we’ve played the town’s folk as Beth cried wolf, only to find later the wolf was real – and caught up to her. When she was a newborn/toddler her way too frequent…
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Beth

Summer's end

Beth starts school on Monday, and you know what’s crazy – besides the fact that we’re only half way through August and school’s already starting – I didn’t know. That’s right, I’m such a lousy father I didn’t know when school started. Well, today I’m feeling charitable. I like to think I’m just forgetful. Forgetful parents…
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BethFamily and Friends

When the autism spectrum wins

After a month of hunting down posts about Beth’s childhood, my mind wandered to our other child. How has he fared through all of this? I remember first thinking in terms of Beth’s disorder “winning” during a Skype therapy session for obsessive-compulsive disorder. The therapist sought to personalize, yet disassociate the disorder from Beth in a way. She tried to objectify…
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