"What ARE You Doing" Autism Awareness Film

This is an e-mail I received today:

Autism Awareness Australia is proud to announce a special premiere screening of our short documentary film, “What are you doing?”, at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday 28th February 2012.
The evening will be hosted by television personality and narrator of the film Tom Gleisner, and is sponsored by the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers, Senator the Hon. Jan McLucas.



We have invited all of Australia’s sitting MP’s and Senators to the screening in the Parliament House Theatrette - this is where we need your help!

All of Australia’s Federal Politicians will be in Canberra that evening and we want to encourage as many of them to attend as possible. We are asking the autism community, families and supporters across the nation to contact their own local member and urge them to come along to this important and educational film.
So it is time to ‘get your members out!’ for an opportunity to educate them more about autism and how if affects families across Australia.
Here's how you can help!
Contact your local member and Senator. You can find their contact details below

Find your local member

Find your Senator

Send them an email, call, fax or write a letter requesting they attend our special premiere. Share your personal experiences with them and urge them to take the time to learn more about ASD and the impact it has on our nation.
Let us know the action you've taken and the response you receive!
Help Autism Awareness Australia and ‘get your members out!’ to our special film premiere at Parliament House, Canberra. Check out our Facebook page for the latest updates and RSVP's!
Thanks for your support!
The Team at Autism Awareness Australia

Please, take, share, contact YOUR politicians.

Here is my plea to the representatives of our electorate... (And yes, I have linked to you, I just hope you take the time to read a little).

I have a son. A glorious, tall, handsome, strapping son. A son about to turn fourteen. My oldest son (the first of two). If you met him you would be impressed by his warmth, knowledge, friendliness and his quirky intelligence. If you met him it would not take long to realise he is a little different. My son has Autism Spectrum Disorder, in his case, Asperger Syndrome (AS).
If you are interested, THIS will tell you more, though it is a little long. It was written in the dark depths, when things were so hard, and the future uncertain.

Boy 1 2003

The young man of today is very different to the child of yesterday, he reads Deepak Chopra, dreams of being a motivational speaker, mentors younger children on the spectrum. He has written a children's book for those with Asperger Syndrome because (in his words in a letter to a publisher):

I want the reader to feel how I feel about Asperger Syndrome, that it is just a new kind of normal and people with it are just as important as everyone else. Difference is a good thing in my perspective.

Boy 1 December 2011

He likes himself, is confident in his own skin. But without help and intervention his story could... would have been so very different.

Please, if you possibly can, attend the screening of "What are You Doing" at Parliament House on Tuesday 28th of Feb. It may give you an idea of the world that is ours. And with knowledge and support, then the possibilities are endless.

Sincerely

The One I Didn't Know Was in Here.

I had a whole other weekend grateful post a brewing, about family and going home and the cycle of life.

Then a post popped up in my reader link:

Don't Laugh at ME.

One of my favourite bloggers, Apples and Autobots has a son on the autism spectrum. When I read of Bot I am taken back to the early years of Boy 1, for the similarities are endless. You NEED to read this post. This amazing, eloquent, articulate, wonderful blogger has explained beautifully one of the major issues we as Mums of special kids on the spectrum face. Sensory meltdowns, and the PUBLIC'S reaction to them.

And I am going to add one of my own stories, well, experience not a story actually.

Boy 1 was around five or six. We too were at a shopping centre, but one with open spaces and discount stores, plenty of room and little crowds. Still, if a bad day, not a feasible excursion. The day began as a good one.

We had perused the stores for a little while, and choosing my battles, we were in the last one. Start happy, end happy, at least that was the plan.

Near the front door of the department store was a clearance table full of Harry Potter merchandise. The three of us, MM, Boy 1 and Boy 2 were all surrounding this table picking what we wanted being the Harry Potter mad family.

The automatic doors began to open as someone else entered. It was in this split second I realised Boy 1 was standing in the tiny gap between table, front window and side wall. The doors had safety mechanisms to stop them closing on someone, not to stop them opening and crushing anyone between the door and the wall as they opened.

I screamed for him to get out of there NOW in the second he had to move as visions of him being crushed before my eyes danced in my head. And when I say screamed I mean SCREAMED!

It would hav scared any child, but to a child with sensory issues it was terrifying. Move he did. He ran screaming past me, past the checkouts into the store.

Crying at the top of his lungs "Keep her away from me, she is going to kill me, she is going to kill me."

You can imagine the reaction of the staff and the shoppers, all I wanted to do was calm him and all they wanted to do was protect him from the one person who could calm him.

It ended. I kept my calm as inside I disintegrated emotionally, explained he was on the spectrum, explained to my distraught son why I had yelled when Mummy really only yells at the times she is losing the plot. We went home. Eight years on I can still feel that solid knot of fear and sadness, of dismay and anger. It wasn't that these people laughed when it was all cleared, it was the way they then looked at my child. Flawed, disabled, broken. Never in my eyes, but that is certainly what shone through theirs. And right at that point the other emotion I remember is hate. I hated how they judged him by a label and by one incident, I loathed the path ahead when so many would do the same again and again. I wanted to SCREAM at them "Do you know him, truly know what a really special boy he is? Yes, he is facing challenges, but can your kids soothe any distressed animal on this planet by merely speaking to them for a minute? Does your child tell you they love you every 5 minutes and treat you as if their world orbits around you? Do they captivate the hearts of those who are supposed to be calloused professionals, yet bask in the brilliance of his smile and the sharpness of his mind? DO THEY?"

Of course I did not. I merely thanked them for their patience and walked away.

So, this is my weekend grateful I am grateful for people like Apples and Autobots who explain far more gracefully than I ever could. I am grateful for so many people who take the time to share, who let their open wounds bleed to educate and advocate, and for the wonderful kids like Bot, and Boy 1 and so many others who make this world an incredible place to be.
And I am so truly grateful for both my sons, my oldest with his incredible goodness, heart and spirit, my youngest with his compassion, support and brilliance.
 
This is a blog hop, though you may be now feeling like it is a lecture. Go, read some lightness and fun, laugh, smile, live. Just keep in mind the next little boy or girl you see having a bad moment may not be having a tantrum because mummy didn't buy what he/she wanted, his/her whole world may be spiralling like a kaliedescope of out of control, overwhelming images, noises and sensations inside that little boy/girl brain. So instead of judging or laughing, maybe go over and ask how you can help a mother who is doing her very best to keep it all together?

This my weekend grateful.