Guest Blog
by
Lottie Parish founder of 'Autism, a jug of coffee and a Dinosaur'
Finding people that you can relate to on this journey is so important, and in this guest blog written by my good friend Lottie from over at 'Autism, a jug of coffee and a Dinosaur' she talks about how she found comfort in the friends she found online. Lottie is a buy mum two boys, and I love how she writes with such honesty, that's why I asked her to share a story for you all.... and I know you will love her too!
The Tribe
I
was once told that only special people get chosen to be special needs
parents. In my opinion that
is crap. We become special
needs parents because it is something that happens randomly; it nothing we do
and nothing that a higher power decides. Its life and it’s something as a
parent we have to come to terms with, deal with and then get on with.
Some
people find it easier than others to except that their gorgeous bundle has
extra needs. It is an
extremely hard and emotional rollercoaster. But your child is your child. By letting yourself fall apart isn’t
going to change your child. It
is not going to make the diagnosis go away and at the end of the day, falling
apart will not help you or your bundle.
This
may sound really harsh and unkind, I promise I don’t mean it to. But for every day that we don’t accept
things as a parent is another day we are not truly supporting our child. A diagnosis is by no means the end of
the world. It is a signpost
to help point us in the right direction, to begin to start to understand the
road we are on. I will
never say the road is easy. It’s
bloody hard and most of the time it’s up hill, bendy and bumpy but it can also
be amazing.
I
never cried or fell apart when I found out that my son was autistic; I already
knew and I think I was just glad that finally we had an official diagnoses so
we could start getting the help and support both my son and our family
needed. However I would be
lying if I said, I had never shed tears; I have shed many, many tears. It’s bloody hard having a child
with autism. You fight
battles that you never dreamed you would have to fight. You fight for help, support and just
to keep yourself and family together. It
is never ending, totally consuming and completely exhausting.
Friends
and family really do try and get it but it’s impossible for them; you can only
truly get it, if you are living it. I
survive the shit and heartache by being able to share it with people who just
understand it. This is The
Tribe. We all need one and the special needs Tribe is a tribe that just
cannot be beaten.
It
is not always easy to find your tribe. But
it’s so important that you. It
is all too easy to let yourself get lost in the thick mist of parenting your
child and focusing all your energy on everyone else but yourself. I have found that I spend little, to
no time on myself anymore. I
rarely see my old friends and find it much easier to stay at home than risk
going out, which can all too easily turn into a horrendous nightmare of survival
and wishing I had never bothered leaving the house.
But
I have discovered The Tribe and it is amazing. You don’t need to look far for
it. They are there on
Facebook, blogging away, setting up get togethers and running support
groups. We are not alone,
and we don’t need to do this alone. If
you haven’t found The Tribe yet, go and look. They are all there, waiting to lend an
ear, have a chat and share their crazy life with you.
I
had not realised until very recently that I was part of The Tribe. It had never really occurred to
me there was one. It
took a friend to point it out to me. And
I am so glad she did. We
all feel alone at times, especially at the beginning of our long rollercoaster
of a ride, but we aren’t. If
you share the good, bad and ugly with someone else who truly understands, you
will stop worrying quite so much and start believing that you aren’t going mad,
and most importantly that you are doing a pretty amazing job rising your crazy
bundle of joy!
Lottie Parish Founder of -Autism, a jug of coffee and a Dinosaur
Lottie Parish is a
fulltime mum to her two gorgeous boys, one of which is on the Autism Spectrum
and has Sensory Processing Disorder.
Lottie spends her time looking after her slightly wild and crazy family
whilst trying to remain sane. She is on
a consent mission to help raise awareness of autism; writing her blog and
running her Facebook page. When time
allows she loves to design and weave fabric on her much loved loom.
And join her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/autismwithajugofcoffeetogo/?fref=ts
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