{"id":28,"date":"2010-02-18T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog2\/2010\/02\/religion-politics-the-great-pumpkin-and-autism\/"},"modified":"2010-02-18T09:30:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T09:30:00","slug":"religion-politics-the-great-pumpkin-and-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/religion-politics-the-great-pumpkin-and-autism\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion, Politics, the Great Pumpkin, and Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A Rant.<\/p>\n

Linus should probably add one more thing to that litany of stuff he can’t ever talk about with others: autism.<\/p>\n

There are times when I am really brought low by the fractious animosity and venom in the autism community. I step back right now and I think, “How can this be? Aren’t we all in the same boat, trying to raise our families and take care of our kids?” Can’t we agree to disagree? I mean, who says any two parents ever could agree on anything? It’s a-different, that’s okay, as Nat would say!<\/p>\n

From the very start we are at each other’s throats. I remember being tyrannized by the local La Leche League about how I had to breastfeed or else! I remember being at the playground and realizing my stroller was totally out of style! I remember the sin of giving my baby snacks with real sugar in them, or buying Nat off-brand baby clothes (Gasp! not <\/span>Hannah Anderson!) … and this was even before autism was a twinkle in someone’s eye. It reminds me of that song, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off:”<\/p>\n

I Must Be A Total Sloth
I say — epidural, you say– natural<\/span>
I say “what twaddle,” to breast versus bottle,<\/span>
Perego! — Sport Buggies!<\/span>
Cloth diapers! — No, Huggies!<\/span>
I guess I’m a total sloth.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Autism Stone Age, when Nat was a baby, it seemed like the biggest problem was finding other autism parents for support, period. Oh, yeah, and the right school program and therapies to help him.<\/p>\n

Maybe we can all just agree that we define the word “help” differently? What’s wrong with that? Why is it so important that the other “side” is also proven wrong?<\/p>\n

Maybe I’m just looking for love in all the wrong places. I just wish we could all get along and remember that we are truly all in this together. Now I’m going to press “Publish Post” and pray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Rant. Linus should probably add one more thing to that litany of stuff he can’t ever talk about with others: autism. There are times when I am really brought low by the fractious animosity and venom in the autism community. I step back right now and I think, “How can this be? Aren’t we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-s","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}