As I was perusing facebook today I noticed that a friend tagged me in one of her posts. You can see the picture just above. It seems to reign true for many who see this picture. I've already read many comments on plans to purchase this shirt.
I think this is a lovely sentiment, but I am a bit confused. This is Autism Awareness month. This is the month were we concentrate the most effort to increase autism awareness around the world. Okay, I get that. What I don't understand is how we can pray for world acceptance and in the same breath ask for encouragement to take our children out in public..."anyway." That does not come across as acceptance to me. What it sounds like to me is that we should be praying for parents to have more acceptance of their autistic child(ren) so that they do not feel ashamed when taking their child(ren) out in public places.
Acceptance begins in the home.
Think about it... If we globally accept our children just as they are and show the world that we are not "bothered" by peoples reactions to our children's behaviors then we are more likely to find that other people become less bothered as well. When they see that the family is having fun and enjoying life people tend to join in. However, if they see shame, fear, degradation, if the world sees disgust and an inability to cope with taking our autistic child(ren) into public places then how on earth do we expect them to find acceptance? Who wants to accept something that appears to be so difficult even painful? Has anyone ever thought about that?!
Autism Awareness Month...Let's start by showing the world how much we love our child(ren) and that we are NOT ashamed.
