One day the world will understand. (A Mama's Lesson)

These are words that I never want to tell my son, but I know the day will come when I will have to explain someone else's lack of knowledge to him. Yet, apparently there are people in this world who still think saying things like "your child isn't average" or words like "abnormal" are okay ways to describe an autistic child.

People should know (so hopefully, those people will eventually find this blog and maybe learn from it!) that it is not okay to consider my child, or any other child, below average or abnormal. There is nothing abnormal about my son. What is normal? Who decides that? Meriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as : "conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern." Well, no one in my family has ever conformed, so I guess none of us are normal.

I realize that we live in a time where most people have given up on being politically correct. I will be the first to admit that I've slung words around that I am NOT proud of and yes...sometimes things come out of my mouth NOW that I hate myself for later. It almost seems though, that sometimes people pride themselves on being as un-PC as possible. And then sometimes the person doesn't even realize it because the world has become so desensitized to everything. That isn't their fault. It's ignorance and you know what they say about that being bliss...

I try not to get angry when people say out of the way things. It does hurt, but I try to remind myself that they aren't in these shoes. They don't know. My fear is though, that they never will know because so many people DON'T WANT to understand how they make others feel. Sometimes I do get angry though and say things that probably shouldn't come out of a Mama's mouth (well, not until the kids are out of earshot anyway). But...

I guess, along with the very people that chap my hide sometimes, I'm still learning too.