Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Stupid things people have said to you about your child with ASD.

159 replies

pinkytheunicorn · 06/01/2020 21:34

Humour me. I'm growing a thicker skin and getting better at taking things on the chin. My DD is only three and a half and was diagnosed in the summer. She is autistic. Doesn't do a lot of the stereotypical things, she's like a little adult to speak to and struggles hugely with groups of peers, unfamiliar people and places etc. Her learning is off the scale and she loves to quote facts and 'do you remember when' things to familiar people. She is a little weird, bless her heart but she's my little weird one and I adore her.

I'm trying to look on the bright side (of peoples idiocy and ignorance not her diagnosis generally- it is what it is and we are doing our best to help now we know what we're dealing with) But four short months after diagnosis I've already heard some corkers. Some amuse me in a weird way, some hurt. I know some people think I'm a shit parent, and that I've made my daughter the way she is - not in a good way - and that stings.

So, come on share some of the stupid things people have said to you, so I can feel less alone and also like it could be worse!

So far, mine have been:

  • Is she like that because you're a stay at home mum and she's never been put in childcare? You should have gone back to work
  • If you stopped pandering to her she'd be less clingy she's not clingy, idiot
  • No wonder she can't mix, you never took her to soft play/toddler groups because she hated them and would shake with terror you fuckwit
  • She's spoilt and mollycoddled ^
-^ She's not got ASD surely, she's so clever, she's just shy/anxious
  • Oh just bring her to the cinema/soft play/my house full of kids she'll be fine it's you that makes her anxious

Anyone got any to add??

OP posts:
LennyPugGoat · 06/01/2020 23:03

Agh, unfortunately I can join in

DD was apparently elergic to red peppers
I attended 11 parenting classes

She doesn’t look autistic and makes good eye contact

Finally diagnosed just before her exams, she smashed them to the extent she felt she needed

This lead to, told you she isn’t autistic, couldn’t have done so well if she was.

No well done DD

Agh

moomoogalicious · 06/01/2020 23:05

Worst of all have been my so called friends who have just ignored it. Never asked how me or dd are coping. Obviously my friendship group is a lot smaller these days Grin

Punxsutawney · 06/01/2020 23:10

Lenny Ds's school will not consider more support for him because he's doing ok academically. They seem to forget about the assessment report that states he has significant communication and interaction difficulties and of course his ongoing mental health difficulties. According to the Senco it doesn't matter as his grades are ok.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

mumwon · 06/01/2020 23:16

Ah yes the eye contact one - she looks you in the eye so she cant be...
Autistic people don't have a sense of humour(Oh yes they do)
Girls/Women don't have autism (they present differently coincidentally women with schizophrenia present differently than men & develop it later so gender does influence things)
& my absolute favourite said to us by old (hag) psychiatric social worker when we were trying to get dd assessed for autism (translation jumping through hoops) "Oh she is so beautiful I am sure she will find someone to look after her!" I was so gobsmacked I couldn't think what to say (I felt like leaning over desk & grabbing her by throat but resisted - she definitely could have been a statistic for NHS being beaten up!) its not a stealth boast by the way - its disbelief because all we wanted was support for her.

Mulledwineinajug · 06/01/2020 23:22

He seems to be outgrowing it.

We didn’t have autism when I was younger.

Is it nature or nurture?

DS is another one who doesn’t look autistic.

OhMsBeliever · 06/01/2020 23:22

But he can read!

This was from the senco when I was asking for extra support for my youngest (autism and adhd) All she ever went on about was how good he was at reading. Yes, I know. And it's not his reading he needed support with. Hmm

I home educate him now.

taratill · 06/01/2020 23:26

I have a 2 with autism, 13 year old boy and 10 year old girl. DS has also got Anxiety Disorder and SPD, daughter SPD and dyslexia ; some of the gems i've had have been:

'don't look autistic'
'are you sure? get them retested'.
'at least he's not ill' (when son has been suicidal).
'too sociable'
'too good eye contact'.
'everyone's 'a bit' on the spectrum' - that's the one I object to the most.
'he'll grow out of it'

Supersimkin2 · 06/01/2020 23:30

Everyone's on the spectrum - most people think a spectrum's a gradient. Some diseases do work on gradients.

LennyPugGoat · 06/01/2020 23:41

Punx DD told me she counted 1000’s of bricks during her mocks due to anxiety

Her go to chose was to throw her chair and shout fuck you all but she decided on the later

I fought all day long for a segregated room for her rep exams, good luck

LennyPugGoat · 06/01/2020 23:41

real exams

IHaveBrilloHair · 06/01/2020 23:49

She doesn't have ASD, I knew a child with it and she's nothing like them

She's not like Sheldon is she?
No such thing as PDA, it's just your bad parenting.
She can't possibly have anything wrong, she looks normal.
No diagnosis? Oh, you're making it up for the money.

That's the nicer things.

AlunWynsKnee · 06/01/2020 23:54

A (genuinely) well meaning friend assured me that dd would start eating different things once she had a sibling to eat alongside.
Hmm. Yeah. The sibling eats all sorts. Dd's still on a handful of foods...

Supersimkin2 · 06/01/2020 23:57

And... most people think autism is one problem, rather than a collection of unconnected neurological deficits. I explain autism like this - measles gives you spots and comes from one virus, but PCOS gives you spots and a lot of worse symptoms, and has many causes. Autism is like PCOS.

Don't be too hard on the public - I completely get how exasperating it is to have to explain and explain (and never get the answers you crave, even from professionals) but the basics of autism are fiddly and no one's going to know about it unless they need to.

DF has a rare dementia and believe me, when it comes to the rest of the planet not listening and making idiotic remarks, I sometimes feel quite as violent as my brain-damaged dad.

As I suspect most of you have observed, health and education professionals have the highest hit rate of ignorance, prejudice and apathy.

Clymene · 06/01/2020 23:57

"Oh we're all a little bit autistic!" said with a jolly laugh is the one that pisses me off most

Blackbear19 · 06/01/2020 23:58

DS is in the assessment process. I've not shared with anybody, various reasons but it's been a tough couple of years and I don't want to give my DM anything else to worry about and can't risk her hearing via the grapevine.

When people say a child doesn't look autistic, what do they expect autistic kids to look like?

AlunWynsKnee · 07/01/2020 00:03

Oh and @pinkytheunicorn your dd sounds like mine at that age. Mine's a teenager now. Lots of battles to get where we are but I'm enormously proud of her.

BlankTimes · 07/01/2020 00:25

Hardly anyone mainly teachers but some friends and family too makes allowances for the difference in emotional age and chronological age in lots of kids with ASD and many other conditions. Therefore their expectations of behaviour are often totally unrealistic and the grow up and act your age comments are totally unfounded.

My dd is mid-twenties now, dxd with ASD and a host of co-morbids bit by bit since age 10 to present. The comments received as an autistic child get older are often along the lines of being mollycoddled, so immature, should be acting their age, need to grow up, need to develop resilience.

Also, in my experience medics can be very intolerant with autistic adults.

In our own GP surgery where DD signed an agreement when she was 16 to say she wanted me to act as her advocate and that info is on the top of all her records on each page on their computer screen. We walked in and sat down, GP who we had not seen before turned to me and said rather aggressively 'Who are you and what are you doing here?'

DD had a suspected broken wrist and the consultant who had been told she has autism was moving, twisting and bending her hand really quickly in all directions asking where it hurt most, here, here, or here, yet not giving her any chance to process his question or formulate any reply apart from generally wincing and crying because he hurt her so much.

Hospital staff saying 'Come this way' and walking so quickly anyone with mobility problems (co-morbid with ASD for some) can't keep up so their anxiety reaches Defcon1 as the person disappears out of sight.

At a hospital appt a nurse was trying to insist DD saw her alone, despite knowing she was autistic and in front of a waiting area full of people I told the nurse as quietly as I could that DD has serious deficits in her ability to communicate. I asked DD what she wanted to do and she said 'Go home' then said she wanted me in there with her.
That should never have happened in a public place.

Hospital consultant when asking about a typical day, I explained DD couldn't answer the phone or the door and the consultant snapped at me 'Don't be ridiculous, of course she can do that' What goes through their minds, why would I lie about something like that, what advantage could I possibly gain by doing so?

Different hospital fuckwit specialist, 'Because you are autistic, the pain you think you feel isn't pain, it's just a different sensation, so you have to tell yourself it isn't pain when you feel it.'
IF we'd asked for a sensory issue to be investigated, I could maybe possibly somehow on an alternate Tuesday when there wasn't a R in the month be very generous and see the "reasoning" for that statement, but the pain DD has, which we'd asked to be investigated is very much different to any sensory pain, but will not be investigated further because that person has decided it's just "a different sensation" because of DD's autism.

It's not all bad, some other health professionals are literally shining stars and go above and beyond to make DD feel comfortable before they carry out any examinations or procedures, but in our experience they are in the minority Sad

SlidingDown · 07/01/2020 00:36

(from a grandparent)

I suppose Iove him, but I'm glad he's not mine.

(OP, I find it difficult when people are called idiots just because they haven't had the life experience necessary to know the same stuff as you. They are definitely uneducated. Resorting to name calling or derogatory terms isn't good, considering the subject. Mentioned after my asd son went through his whole childhood being called an idiot)

Spacedust1 · 07/01/2020 00:37

I think he's grown out of it now
He's not like it with me

Spacedust1 · 07/01/2020 00:39

I think you spoil him
Have you tried a gluten free diet for him
Have you tried omega 3
Have you tried magnets

Spacedust1 · 07/01/2020 00:40

Magnesium not magnets!!

Spacedust1 · 07/01/2020 00:41

Oh.... we're all a bit on the spectrum aren't we? Angry

BlankTimes · 07/01/2020 00:45

Everyone's on the spectrum - most people think a spectrum's a gradient. Some diseases do work on gradients

This is a very good explanation of the spectrum and why everyone emphatically is not on it.
theaspergian.com/2019/05/04/its-a-spectrum-doesnt-mean-what-you-think/

And please in addition to the myths we've already seen busted on this thread, do enlighten any fool who likens autism to a disease or condition that can be cured.
Or who says someone's autism is "mild"
Or who assumes high functioning means 'Can pass for NT'.
Or who thinks calling the medical diagnosis of autism, often in childhood made by a team of medical professionals usually Paed, Ed Psych, SLT and OT "a label" as if it's something insignificant.

Punxsutawney · 07/01/2020 00:54

Blank the lack of autism training in the NHS is astonishing. It's so awful that your Dd has been subjected to some of that. We seemed to have found one understanding gp at our surgery.

stormsurfer · 07/01/2020 00:54

From ExH: he's not autistic, you got him diagnosed to get benefits. ( ha! I'm such an evil genius I can persuade all those medical professions and teachers!)

From ExH (who moved 3000 miles away when things got tough) : he's not autistic, you just can't cope with him.

From Camhs to DD who was there due to struggling with diagnosis: Well you're making eye contact with me so maybe you've grown out of it.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread