eSpecially Ben

During camp this summer, an older female counselor made a favorable comment about Ben's genitals to his speech therapist. The speech therapist did not know this women and definitely felt uncomfortable with her making that kind of comment to him. When I got wind of it, I knew it was a strange and weird comment to make about a child, especially to someone unknown to you. I knew it was unprofessional and that the she would probably lose her job over the stupid comment. So I made the decision to not say anything until camp was over. I weighed the positive and negative impact of this woman losing her job to Ben's experience at camp - less staff available, lower staff moral, etc. One of my fears for Ben is to have him molested and he not have a way to tell us. I did not think that this woman was abusing Ben, I just think she said something in passing that she may have thought funny to share with someone else. I do think that when working with any children, sexual innuendos, jokes

Let's see...Tye was diagnosed with autism 13 years ago.  Over the course of that time there have been varied responses to his diagnosis from family members and friends. My family, for the most part, has been really good with my son, taking some effort to try to make things easier. There are times when some can be totally clueless too. My Mom is awesome and seems to get most of it (or at least tries). My father has been a true disappointment.  He doesn't know how to interact with Tye and his half-hearted attempts are awful to watch.   On my husband's side most of the older kids ignore him, which hurts, or look at him funny when he makes the sounds he makes or does some of the things he does.  The younger ones notice he's different, but haven't quite figured it out yet.  His parents are not too bad with him, although they will allow him to do some things he shouldn't do because they feel bad for him and aren't sure how to reprimand him when he's doing

Change in family and friends is a topic near and dear to my heart. I've always had a supportive immediate family.  I have an older sister and brother, and my parents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  After having Ben we seem to be more of a pack now (more protective of one another).  If something is going on with my nieces, it's common for all of us to show up where they are, unannounced.  It's refreshing because if one of us doesn't have the energy to deal with the situation, the others will.  That's the ultimate support to me.  It simply means that we are always aware of the issues because of continuous communication. Some of my family members have surprised me because I never thought they would want to have anything to do with Ben, but have ended up being the "motivated helpers" as I call them.  When I pull up, they are at the car to help.  Concerning friends, they are few and far between.  If I can't talk to them on the phone