Category: Autism and Special Needs Parenting

Sadness Is the Great Liberator The day I finally sat down and wept for my son—for the life I thought he would have, for the dreams I had carried—was the day my healing truly began. It wasn’t pretty. There were no inspirational music swells in the background, no moment of transcendent understanding. Just me, alone,…

Denial Is Willful Ignorance I want to talk to you about something difficult but necessary: denial. I’ve been there myself, and I know how tempting it can be to hide from painful truths. Denial isn’t just simple ignorance—it’s a chosen ignorance, a deliberate turning away from what’s right in front of us because the reality…

The Perils of Anger The morning I fully realized my son wasn’t going to catch up with his peers, I slammed my coffee mug down so hard that it cracked. My wife flinched. I didn’t apologize. I was too busy being furious at the world, at our circumstances, at her, at myself—though I wasn’t ready…

Grieving the Loss of What You Never Had The day I finally accepted my son’s diagnosis, I sat and wept. Not just a few quiet tears, but deep, body-shaking sobs that seemed to come from somewhere ancient inside me. I wasn’t just crying for my son—I was mourning the death of a dream. When you…

My Common Journey I’ve known my autistic son was special for two decades now. Through those years, I’ve also come to know many families with special needs children, and I’ve noticed so many commonalities in our experiences. It’s like we’re all walking different paths through the same forest, encountering the same landmarks, just at different…

Do you have a broken child? Is your world crashing down around you? I remember that feeling—the moment when everything you thought your life would be suddenly shatters into pieces. Your dreams of the perfect family now lie in tatters. That hopelessness and despair can feel overwhelming, can’t it? When you first realize your perfect…

Parenting special needs children is difficult, but it need not be a lifelong pity party over a burdensome road we must travel. If you are a special needs parent reading this post, what were you looking for? What is it you seek when you read the stories of how other special needs parents coped with…

The US Food and Drug Administration has published a warning for parents to beware of false or misleading claims about HBOT for treating autism. I know a family who purchased a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for their home to treat their son with autism. It was expensive. A cheap one costs about $10,000, and some go…

Searching for miracle cures fans false hopes, wastes time, and enriches con artists. Every parent wants a perfect child who grows up to have a major impact on the world and the love and adoration of the masses. Parents fantasize about living vicariously through their child prodigy, who will fulfill every dream they couldn’t in…