I'm not good at blogging regularly, I'm sorry and I'll try harder.
It has been an exciting time for Autism families recently. The past week my Facebook newsfeed has been full of articles about the new muppet being bought to Sesame Street, Julia, a little girl muppet with Autism. I have watched some of the clips and it is exciting. I know I won't be able to access it in the UK, but there's always YouTube.
Yesterday I also saw an interview where it was revealed that CBeebies are bringing out a series about a little boy called Pablo who is also on the spectrum.
Happy days for Autism families, right?
As long as you don't get tempted to read the comment threads on the articles. There will be a lot of encouraging comments but unfortunately there are a lot of hate-filled comments too.
Here are a few examples of things I've read: Autism doesn't exist, It's a made up condition to cover up for bad parenting or Why do we need disabled characters, what's next a transgender muppet? or I once hired my beach house out to a family with an autistic 8-year-old, he was a little **** and needed a good slap, I refused to allow them to use it or Autism didn't exist 20 years ago.
Autism did exist 20 years ago, it wasn't talked about so much and wasn't supported the way it is today.
There are many more examples sadly. How is discrimination like this allowed?
It saddens me because I worry about the future for my son and other children. I've always considered myself to be tough but I'm finding it hard this week.
Things will settle down, the sick, hateful people will get over it and we will have a world with more Autism Awareness, that will be a wonderful thing.
