BBC 2 tonight 9PM

[Jimjams]

Sorry shameless plug, but I think this is going to be great.

Jacqui Jackson single mum of 7, 4 on the autistic spectrum (youngest also has CP).

[Mog]

Watched this tonight Jimjams and am completely in awe of the mother. How she coped with all this on her own is completely beyond me and makes me feel very inadequate for getting stressed with two. What did you think?

[ScummyMummy]

Have made my friend at work video this and can't wait to see it. Looking forward to everyone's views.

[Oakmaiden]

Scarey how similar my ds is to Joseph. Now I want to look up more stuff about gluten and casein intolerance.... (We seem to have sorted out the creeping about the house and raiding the kitchen problem - we have bought a movement detector which sets off an alarm and posistioned it so that if ds leaves his bedroom and goes to the top of the stairs or past the bathroom then the alarm goes off and lets us know he is on the loose. Working OK so far!)

[Oakmaiden]

Those coloured lenses were interesting too....

[Jollymum]

Jimjams, sorry posted on S/N section because I rushed to type and didn't see the thread already open. Just to say "WOW" and I don't know how to copy my original message onto this thread.LOL

[miggy]

Humble is def the feeling after watching this, she was fantastic and all the children were so lovely. How does she stay so cheerful on 2 hrs sleep a night. Wow- so impressed with this woman and her lovely family. The Girls were so mature and tolerant of their brothers stranger habits, they all seemed to really love each other. Luke was so articulate. I hope that professor who wrote that bit in the Times was watching, could there be a better example of good parenting- I think not!

[Mog]

And she was doing a masters degree!!!!!

[fio2]

what an amazing woman and what a lovely family

[Jimjams]

Well Jacqui's a mate of mine- and totally awesome which is why I put a note in to tell people to watch it. She's great- never met her in the flesh - so I loved the programme, but she was one of a group of people who really helped when we were doing through diagnosis with ds1. I've never understood how she survves on so little sleep, and I still don't.

Ben is a cute as I thought he would be. I just loved the bit where he was beneath the shopping trolley. it reminded me of ds1 in the London aquarium. It was far too busy and he ended up lying on the floor looking at the lumps on the flooring.....

[Jimjams]

Oakmaiden- my ds1 absolutely loves red and pink acetate film. He loks through it and holds everything really close. Several people who have assessed him have said they think he sees double so I'm going to track down some red glasses tomorrow (he wouldn't wear them last time I looked into it but I think he will now- he's more tolerant of things on his face now)

[Loobie]

have posted about tis amazing women and her family on the s/n thread.

[Furball]

Wow, what a fantastic woman and what fantastic children she has. How do you cope with 7 kids let alone 4 with different degrees of autism. For once the TV made somebody look good. Normally these sorts of programmes turn the family into a load of horrible people. Jacqui deffinately has the right attitude and it shows in all her beautiful children.

[LIZS]

Jacqui has such a positive attitude, despite all the ups and downs and lack of sleep. I'm sure this was contributed towards the confidence and and tolerance of her kids towards one another. Perhaps it was carefully edited but it was nice to see a programme that did appear to reflect the ideas and life of its participants.

[Boe]

I cried too.

I feel unbelieveably humble and pathetic for moaning about things that are happening to me when she seems to just get on with her life - that is the hand that she has been dealt and so she does her best.

I have made a decision that I am going to be more tolerant of other peoples children when I see them misbehaving - I know for sure that I would have been a bit peeved seeing a child behaving like Ben was, I will now not make judgements - he was not misbehaving afterall!!

I also think that this brought back my anger at the couple who tried to put their child into care who was on last week - what they had to deal with was nothing compared to what Jacqui obviously deals with, with a great amount of love and humour everyday.

Hats off to her!!

(DP also cried - he was stunned - said Jacqui was very attractive - bit like an older Zoe Ball!!)

[batey]

Thought she was an amazing woman. Puts all my minor moans into perspective big time.

[Northerner]

I agree with you all. Everyone in the office this morning is talking about this amazing woman. Such a humbling programme that made me feel guilty for moaning about my life. She clearly is a wondefrul mother with a wonderful family. I have nothing but respect for them all.

[Rebi]

I thought she was amazing too. Some people are definitely natural mothers, while the rest of us have to work at it!

The bit when Ben was going through diagnostic tests really got me also. My brother was never diagnosed but his behaviour as a child was so similar to Ben. He had a terrible childhood (even though my parents tried and tried to get help - and were told it was them) is now 32 and a very unhappy adult.

But the overall feeling my dh and I had at the end of the programme was really positive. I have taped the programme and thing my ds (who has hfa) will benefit from seeing it in the future.

What a fantastic family. What a role model!

[Jimjams]

I'll tell jacqui what your dp said Boe I'm sure it will make her day!

LIZS- I think the programme was a fair reflection on her family life. The only thing it didn't show really was the frustration of dealing with the agencies and people who are supposed to be there to help.

[Boe]

Tell her that he thought she was not just beautiful on the outside. I did too. She is most certainly a lessonto us all.

[ThomCat]

A fantastic prograame. Watching Jacqui and her family made me feel humble, like many others here. However I didn't cry, I didn't feel sorry for her in that way - she didn't allow me to, she was far too positive and she made feel stronger in myself, just seeing how strong she can be with 4 SN children, as well as those that aren't SN. I just felt massive admiration and came away thinking not 'oh how sad' but 'wow what a great family and what a superb strong woman'.
Jacqui you are a true inspiration to all mothers and I'd like to thank her for letting the cameras, it made me give myself a slap round the face and stop moaning about stupid little things that don't actually matter.

[Boe]

I cried but not because I felt sad or any pity for her - I cried because I was so overwhelmed by her strength of character and dedication to her children and the fact that she found humour in things that most of us would go potty about.

I am most certainly not going to worry about DD spilling things or cutting paper up or anything so trivial anymore thats for sure.

[ThomCat]

i know what you mean Boe, xx

[tallulah]

Only repeat what everyone else has said! Fantastic woman- how does she keep so calm?

The coloured lenses were interesting, ours have never been offered this sort of test. Worth looking into.

jimjams, when we first saw Luke we got a real shock.. he's the image of our DS1, who we think has AS (diagnosed dyspraxic at 5, now 15).

[Jimjams]

I had a real eureka moment as well. Luke was talking about the diet and having red ears and rings round his eyes. Ds1 has been gluten free for a couple of years now but we've just started reducing his casein intake, and it suddenly occurred to me that he hasn't had a red ear attack since then.

Tallulah- I'd recommend Lukes book(s)!