Don't "Ass"ume!!

This Washington Post story stirs up so many emotions in me.

This is the reality of many families with non verbal, not potty trained children. I have no idea if this is abuse or just trying to maintain their safety. I tend to lean towards the later, because we live in a house with locks. Austin is never locked in a room alone, but our house even on good days is locked when we go to bed. If we feel Austin is an extreme safety risk, one of us will instead of locking him in alone, sleep in his room with him. When he was at his extreme, we locked ourselves and him in his room.

We have also over the last almost 13 years dealt with pee and poop accidents. Our carpet is never going to be as clean as I would like it to be. If we didn't rent, I would never ever have carpet for this reason.

When you read this story, know that there are two sides of every story and do not assume. Most parents do not have the resources, the options, or the help that our family has had because of having older children and amazing siblings and parents to help us. We also live in SoCal which has given us many more resources then the rest of the country has!

If I did not have Ed and the older children, Ashley and Nick, to help back at the beginning 10.5 years ago could we have been this family?

YES!!

As I sit in Austin's room right now, I still think how much cleaner it could be and how the fact that his mattress is on the floor and that could be misinterpreted.

Honestly, as a renter, a mattress on a floor leaves less damage to the carpet below, and as a parent who owns her own carpet cleaner, once less area to clean. It also leaves one less chance for Austin to fall out a window. Yes parents like me think like that. We do not put anything near a window that can be pushed out.

Autism is a very complicated thing and it is a very individual thing.

When you meet one person with autism, YOU HAVE MET ONE PERSON WITH AUTISM!

It is not one size fits all, it is not all parents are the same, its sometimes all for fighting for your kid, while trying to make sure we leave it better for the next kid/family!!