Thread by @mykola

This. This is the way, we need to focus on the goal.

The goal can’t be to replay our own traumas against other struggling parents, which let’s be real does happen.

This isn’t to excuse abusive parents, quite the contrary!

We want to protect their kids. That has to be the goal.

https://twitter.com/lucyrebel13/status/1473098842706878466

This is a hard thing to do, because most often it’s obvious to us when the thing the autistic kid needs protection from is the parent.

And we feel powerless against an authority figure we can’t seem to win against.

And that’s excruciating and *wrong*.

…but what’s the goal?

If the goal is to protect the autistic kid then the play has to be to find some way to make the parent let up.

And the way to do that is often to show the parent compassion and allow them space to process complexity that nobody seems to want to acknowledge.

But:

That’s not a fight everyone equipped to fight. That’s a specialist role. There are those among us who are exceptionally kind and patient and perhaps not triggered by these interactions.

So like, how do we get those people in front of the confused and scared parents?

When do we stop making parents choose between “doctors who seem to want me to abuse my kid” and “internet strangers who seem so strange and angry and keep saying my kid is like them in ways I don’t understand?”

You know?

Where are the #AutisticAmbassadors we need?