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Charlie, I can’t promise that I’ll be the perfect mother at all times, but I promise I’ll do my best. I can’t promise to always make the right decisions for how…
Browsing Tag
actuallyautistic
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To the parents of autistic children, you are not alone To the parents of autistic children who’ve been bullied by #ActuallyAutistic, I want you to know that you’re not alone. They…
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High-Functioning Autism / Asperger’s in adults Lots of people have trouble maintaining relationships, and social phobia is also a common fear. I’ve met many people in my life who didn’t like…
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You can feel sad about your child’s diagnosis and still love them with every fiber of your being. If you do, I want you to know that you’re not alone in…
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How do you do it? People often ask me, “how do you do it,” with regard to raising a severely autistic child. And, “how do you stay happy? Or, “how…
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Autism success stories in the media The media like to portray heart-warming autism success stories, but the reality for many autistics and their loved-ones is often quite different. While it makes…
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This is the continuation of a post I first published in 2016 that you can read here. Parents of autistic children are my heroes. This is your reminder that you are…
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This is an excerpt from my book, All Across The Spectrum. You can pre-order here. Autism: A balancing act With autism, I always feel like I’m playing a balancing act, trying…
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Bullying and the dark side of the Neurodiversity Movement This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while but didn’t. I couldn’t. Partially because I was scared of…
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This is an excerpt from my book, All Across the Spectrum, that you can pre-order here. Autism and functioning labels As I kept sharing about autism on my blog, the #ActuallyAutistic doubled…
![Charlie’s Therapy Center Reported us to CPS.
I debated sharing this for obvious reasons, but I believe this will be helpful for many parents. I also know a lot of you follow me for my honesty and vulnerability, so it didn’t feel right keeping this a secret now that this is over.
A few weeks ago, Charlie pushed a chair up to the counter to access our vitamin cabinet. He grabbed a bottle of children’s melatonin gummies, opened the child-resistant lid, and ate most of the gummies. We called poison control right away, who told us we needn’t worry—what he ate was not dangerous to his health. Still, as parents, we felt terrible.
Because of what happened, we ordered locks the same day and kept the cabinet sealed with several feet of Charlie-proof Gorilla tape along the edge of the door.
A couple of weeks later, Charlie ate a dog treat. Again, we took action right away by moving where we store the dog treats to the pantry that has a lock.
Willy and I take full responsibility for the incidents that happened. We’re good, loving parents, but we’re also busy, flawed humans. Raising a severely autistic child who has no sense of danger means you either need to have eyes on them at all times, or have a highly-secured environment if you’re going to, say, step out to go to the bathroom. It only takes a second for something bad to happen. It’s stressful, but it’s our responsibility. We know it.
We told our team of therapists what had happened because while securing cabinets is our responsibility as parents, we rely on them to help Charlie gain fundamental skills. PICA is common among autistic children, and Charlie doesn’t have the skill-set to discriminate between consuming safe and unsafe items. So we went to our ABA team hoping they could help.
Instead of support from our BCBA, we heard a knocking at the door a few hours later to announce that because of those incidents, she filed a report with CPS. No warning. She didn’t even check to see if we had hidden the dog treats and secured the cabinet. She reported us to the same agency that takes children away from abusive and neglectful parents.
[End on the blog —LINK IN BIO]](http://scontent-lhr3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/e35/c12.0.1416.1416a/s320x320/79520802_109469130385707_1638510406839191628_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lhr3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=103&oh=46e7b48c0ccc174bac50ff122ed860ba&oe=5E7F52DB "Charlie’s Therapy Center Reported us to CPS.
I debated sharing this for obvious reasons, but I believe this will be helpful for many parents. I also know a lot of you follow me for my honesty and vulnerability, so it didn’t feel right keeping this a secret now that this is over.
A few weeks ago, Charlie pushed a chair up to the counter to access our vitamin cabinet. He grabbed a bottle of children’s melatonin gummies, opened the child-resistant lid, and ate most of the gummies. We called poison control right away, who told us we needn’t worry—what he ate was not dangerous to his health. Still, as parents, we felt terrible.
Because of what happened, we ordered locks the same day and kept the cabinet sealed with several feet of Charlie-proof Gorilla tape along the edge of the door.
A couple of weeks later, Charlie ate a dog treat. Again, we took action right away by moving where we store the dog treats to the pantry that has a lock.
Willy and I take full responsibility for the incidents that happened. We’re good, loving parents, but we’re also busy, flawed humans. Raising a severely autistic child who has no sense of danger means you either need to have eyes on them at all times, or have a highly-secured environment if you’re going to, say, step out to go to the bathroom. It only takes a second for something bad to happen. It’s stressful, but it’s our responsibility. We know it.
We told our team of therapists what had happened because while securing cabinets is our responsibility as parents, we rely on them to help Charlie gain fundamental skills. PICA is common among autistic children, and Charlie doesn’t have the skill-set to discriminate between consuming safe and unsafe items. So we went to our ABA team hoping they could help.
Instead of support from our BCBA, we heard a knocking at the door a few hours later to announce that because of those incidents, she filed a report with CPS. No warning. She didn’t even check to see if we had hidden the dog treats and secured the cabinet. She reported us to the same agency that takes children away from abusive and neglectful parents.
[End on the blog —LINK IN BIO]")
