Does anyone else ever feel a bit hurt when parents of children with lower support needs talk as though we’re all experiencing the same thing?
I completely understand that every autistic child has their own struggles, and I’m not saying for one second that those struggles aren’t hard. I would never want to take away from another parent’s experience.But sometimes I find it really difficult when people make comparisons as though our lives are basically the same, when there can actually be such a massive difference in daytoday life depending on where your child is on the spectrum.My child is non-verbal, attends a special needs school, isn’t toilet trained, needs help with pretty much everything and has never slept independently or slept through the night. There are things that other families might be dealing with that are completely different their child being able to talk, feed themselves, use the toilet, sleep independently, attend mainstream school and manage with minimal additional support.I know those children still have needs. I know their parents still have very hard days. I’m genuinely not trying to say otherwise.I just sometimes feel like there’s an expectation that because we both have an autistic child, our experiences must be the same, and they really aren’t.There is a huge difference between needing some additional support and needing a child to have support with almost every aspect of their daily life. And sometimes I just wish there was more acknowledgement of that without it becoming a competition about whose child has it harder.I’m not looking for anyone to tell me my child’s needs are more important than someone else’s. I just wonder if any other parents of children with very high support needs understand what I mean when I say it can feel incredibly isolating when people act like we’re all living the same reality.