Hope and a little autism

 Today I want to write about something a bit heavier than usual. "Trust"... Recently someone sent me a video. It showed a child being restrained and beaten by a therapist in a therapy centre. Truly awful. I hope he’s in a really bad jail. And it brought up a question that sits quietly in the background of parenting: how do you trust someone with your child? This isn’t only a special needs parent problem. Every parent faces it at some point. Babies and toddlers can’t tell you if something is wrong. When we leave them with a babysitter or a nanny or a childcare centre, there’s always that moment of trust. If we keep them with us 24/7, then we have to trust ourselves — and anyone who has parented through exhaustion knows we’re not always operating at our best either. The reality is that most of us simply can’t do everything alone. I certainly can’t given my schedule. Sometimes I have to trust other people with my son. But the difference is that my son — despite being the exact s...

 Screen time is the big scary villain of any modern parenting especially autism parenting. iPads have officially made it to Toy Story 5 and if something becomes a Disney villain you know it’s a big Debate. So here’s my take. When my kid was little, I was one of those mums. You know the type. Too much education. Too many opinions. Too many colour-coded ideals. No screen time. No outside food Everything prepared by me. And Only wooden toys ... I remember more experienced parents quietly watching me like, “…you don’t actually have to live like this.” But I felt like I was in a competition. A secret, exhausting, invisible competition where you try to get top marks in motherhood. Breastfeeding = marks ✔️. ( I failed big time in that by the way) Cooking from scratch = ✔️ marks. No screens =  ✔️ marks. Educational toys = ✔️ marks. Reading constantly = ✔️ marks. I was aiming for a Distinction. Then kiddo  was diagnosed with Moderate autism..all my ideals went out of the wind...