Parents of adult Aspies know what the parents of small children on the spectrum don’t want to know. After spending twelve years of school trying to not be Autistic and learning to tolerate the NT world, the NT world is unwilling to tolerate our young adults.
We recognize that our spectrum children have grown into absolutely amazing adults. When young adult Aspies get together, they are more social than any NT out there. They joke, chat and debate for hours on end. Years of perseveration has filled their brains with more details than a Jeopardy champion.
The real world doesn’t appreciate our children. They thoughtlessly stomp on the efforts of our children to integrate in their confusing, cruel and deceitful communities. Our children are punished for honesty in a world that rewards superficial deception.
If I could, I would create a safe place for adult Aspies to live. Not a gated jail like the compassionless want for Knoxville’s homeless, but a commune within the city. Uncle Ernie’s camp without the pedophilia and homicide. A place where we return to the days when southerners took pride in their eccentricities instead of medically altering everyone to look and act identically.
Lacking the bottomless funds to create the world I want, I work with the world I have. My life is AspieTown. I quietly watch my adult Aspie laughing with his friends. I use my angry eyes to deflect the cruelty of those who can’t look beyond the quirks to appreciate the gifts that spectrum children give to those who allow them into their lives.
Sometimes the gifts are gag gifts, but every day is a holiday in AspieTown.
Ah yes, I know the feeling (and I’m still at the “small aspie” stage. She’s 11 now, but man oh man. I wish we could start up a commune for them, too. Of course it wouldn’t be very organized… (haha). I don’t know about you, but mine can categorize her m&ms or smarties before she eats them (oh hell, *I* do that too!) but she can’t organize otherwise to save her life.
And yes – it’s always an adventure.
In Aspie town, we will sort M&Ms by color but repurpose the valuable collections of empty bottles, gum wrappers and other “treasures” that Aspies love.
I just want to +1 this a million times. Totally on board with joining the Aspietown Commune.
I’m not an aspie, but I was raised with one. Can I join Aspie Town, too? Based off the Aspies I know, it sounds much better than the “Real World”.
AspieTown would have an open door policy if it existed.