10 good things about being an autism parent

I am not an optimist by nature, so writing this post is somewhat ironic. But if you are an autism parent, you already know all the hard things about it. You don't need me to remind you (although I would love for others to get a glimpse of what we go through). So, instead, I came up with 10 good things about being an autism parent. Undoubtedly, there are more than 10 good things. You just have to be in the right frame of mind to notice them. So, I hope this list will provide you with a refreshing break from the hard things, if only for a few minutes.

1. Your child is ______(insert best trait here). Everyone has a good trait, a talent, a gift. My daughter is an empath (odd for an ASD, I know). She is empathetic to the point of getting her own feelings hurt for someone else, or crying their tears. My son is athletic. Neither of my kids have motor skill deficits, but my son is particularly active and talented when it comes to sports. He is also a sore loser, but I will not elaborate on that here. (Good things, remember?)

2. Your child does not ask to go to the toy store every time they see a commercial on television. I don't have any neurotypical children but I do know some and every time a commercial comes on or they see another kid's cool toy, they ask their parents for one. Not the case with mine. I don't think they even knew toy stores existed until the past few months when I've been bribing them with potty prize trips to the store to pick out a new toy. I used to have to use picture symbols to prepare them for trips to the store. Now, they understand if I just say "we're going to the toy store", but they still don't initiate the idea. Which is perfectly okay for my sanity...and my wallet.

3. Your child doesn't start talking about Christmas 5 months in advance. My kids don't know what Christmas is unless I show them pictures from past Christmases. They don't know they can ask Santa for presents (I should have started taking advantage of that year's ago). My son has recently (this week) started telling me he wants to be a skeleton for Halloween, which is a HUGE breakthrough. My daughter has still never asked for something like that in advance.

4. Your grocery list could be shortened to 10 items and the kids would be perfectly okay with that. Hot dogs, chips, carrots, yogurt, chicken nuggets, eggs, toast, crackers, ice cream and french fries for my kids. I, on the other hand...

5. Your child does not know what Disney World is. Enough said. 

6. Your child does not repeat cuss words. Unless they have echolalia, as my daughter did. But by some miracle, she never picked up any bad words. I know some 5 year olds that know dirtier words than even me, but my kids appear to still be fairly innocent.

7. If they have OCD tendencies, like my daughter and so many others do, they can buckle themselves in their booster seat when you forget. (This has only happened a handful of times I swear...okay maybe 6). Neurotypical kids would start bouncing around the car yelling "I'm free!", but kids with autism can't help but stick to the good ol' routine.

8. You save money on buying new movies because they watch the same one over and over. You better just pray they don't get stuck on one while it's still in theaters.

9. Birthday parties are cheap and easy. Kids with autism are, by definition, not great at making friends, so the invite list is usually limited to family. Luckily for my kids, I love throwing extravagant parties and inviting everyone and their dog anyway.

10. You don't have to stop what you're doing every 15 minutes to take them to the bathroom because they're probably not potty trained anyway. And you don't have to sit in the bathroom for hours on end entertaining them while you're trying to potty train them. Of course the drawback is that you're paying out the ass (literally) for diapers, but time is money too...right?