Saturday, January 29, 2011

To Pee or to not pee, where does the child with Autism go to the bathroom?

To my elected officials of the United States of America starting with my President, Mr. Obama, My Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, My House of Representative Bill Bilbray, my State Governor, my state reps, ok pretty much everyone who I vote for,

I have a question for you on what are you going to do about the relief issue of Autism.

Fine you refuse to acknowledge that there is an epidemic of children with Autism, I get that, I got that 6.75 years ago when I walked into the world of Autism and the numbers were 1:150, and that was of children 8 years and older and my child was under 3!

With every turn of budget cuts I get you do not want to deal with me or others like me, but realize I am here and I am not going away. My child is not going away, he is only going to get bigger and need more help.

Ok you don’t want to deal with if vaccines cause Autism, today, I will let that issue go and say FINE! (And yes that is the FINE in the tone you do not want to hear your spouse say it) But this issue I have WILL not go away and you will need to fix it our deal with the route of the problem.

The American’s with Disabilities Act Will need to be fixed and as soon as possible. Every new commericial building built in America needs to have a “family” bathroom. Bottom line our kids are coming in mass numbers and sorry they come with parents of 2 sexes and we need bathrooms that accommodate 0-100 year olds with disabilities. Family bathrooms in every new commercial building are a must.

Personally my child with Autism, in my mind is not fully potty trained, but he definitely does NOT like to soil himself. Anywhere he knows where the bathroom is, if given the chance to escape, he will run to the bathroom to relieve himself. Unfortunately he also loses all his clothing and shoes in the process.

Tonight that happened and he ended up in the men’s bathroom with me in chase. Fortunately my husband was within eye view and came to the rescue. For the single parent or for the parent out with the opposite sexed child this can be an extreme issue.

Had I been alone, I would have been in the Men’s bathroom STAT!!! I don’t care who was going in the urinal, I would have seen your junk. My child with Autism can’t be left alone EVER! His Autism leaves him open to eating, licking, mouthing and touching anything and everything inappropriately. This has been well documented by us and his teachers at school. It also leaves him open to inappropriate people in a bathroom. Sorry, no way in HELL my kid is going to be alone in a bathroom. I am more than fine with making you the normal male uncomfortable with me being there to protect my kid!

This is unacceptable. I know private business will object, but I am sorry they will have to change to adapt to 1:110 kids with Autism, every new business, every new buildings must have family bathrooms. We are 1:110 and we are just talking Autism, we have not even touched on any other disability.

We are here and we are NOT going away!

2 comments:

  1. I absolutely love your post. Right on girlfriend!

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  2. Just catching up on your blog posts. I love this post! This is so true! We need to fight for more Family Bathrooms as part of ADA. Intellectual disabilities are real disabilities and need accommodations.

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