SHATTERING MOMENT I HEARD THE ONE WORD THAT EVERY PARENT DREADS
The article was about the journalist's personal experience of finding out that his son had autism. The article itself was quite interesting, once I'd ignored the parts about him trying to "cure" his son. The son, incidentally, grew up to be a fine young man with a good job and a girlfriend, so I'm not exactly sure what all the fuss was about.
It was the headline that really annoyed me. The one word that every parent dreads? Really? There are a lot of things that I dread, but autism isn't one of them. Autism isn't deadly. It won't kill you. It isn't the end of the world.
I was actually hugely relieved when my son got his diagnosis. It meant I actually had a name for his condition and that I could get the support and help that we needed.
I wonder how the journalist's son felt when he read his father's article? I wonder how he reacted, knowing how his dad felt about his autism and the idea that it was something that needed to be "fixed?"
Autism isn't an illness. It is just a different way of viewing the world. Maybe I'd change the headline to this:
JOURNALIST PROMOTES THE ONE THING THAT EVERY AUTISM PARENT DREADS: IGNORANCE.
