Another death of an autistic child and suicide of the parent. The mother and her nine-year-old son were found in the living room of their west-side apartment on Tuesday morning.
John August played the young boy’s baseball team this past summer in the Miracle League (http://www.greenbaymiracleleague.com). It’s a wonderful organization that helps kids with physical and neuro disabilities play baseball, which is something these kids would never, ever be able to do otherwise.
Heartbreaking and sad, when are people going to realize that raising an autistic child can be overwhelming for even the strongest? Parenting a child is hard enough, but when you are raising a child with neuro-disabilities, the game has changed. Everything you know and experience as a **human** doesn’t apply to these kids. Everything from communication and basic tasks like eating are different. How we think, act, and exist is completely different than those who have autism.
The media and service organizations keep saying there are ‘resources’ available. Everyone is so quick to jump out and throw around ideas like “therapy” and “talk to someone”. This is not what we need. There aren’t resources available that we actually need and I know this because I have searched them out. We need help. Actual. Physical. Help. Like “get your butt out of your house, get over here, and help me out” kind of help. The “watch my kid for a while so I can go to the bathroom and not come out to my child in danger” kind of help. Give us the physical tools that will help us care for our children, because “talking things over” isn’t going to get our kids to talk or understand that they can’t breathe underwater.
The trouble is that there is no break, no off switch, no down time. We are always on, always struggling to keep up, always trying, always caring for our kids, always, always, always. And without help, some days it just gets to be too much. For those who like to misread and read into what I write: I am not excusing murder/suicide nor am I suicidal or plan on harming my kids. What I am saying, however, is if you don’t live it, you don’t get to judge it. Instead of shaking your head at someone, give of yourself and help.
Spots on the Dog 