:hug: to you too glamour. My son is one of those higher functioning kids. To look at/spend time with him, a lot of people who aren't too familiar with ASD kids would never know there's anything wrong with him unless they spent a long time talking to him (speech issues) or they happened to make him mad, lol. In that sense, people (including my family, grr) want to treat him as a "normal" kid and expect that I have a "normal" time with him. SOOOO not the case. Not to mention the ones that like to think your kid's just a big ole spoiled brat :mad: My mother is constantly telling me that my daughter's going to be a huge diva when she gets older; she can't seem to get it through her head that it's my daughter's issues, not her attitude, that make her act that way.

Exercise definitely helps with my stress!

Omg, my father thinks the same thing! That I need to tell my son his behavior is "unacceptable" ...oh I don't think I'll ever stop laughing at that. As if it were that simple! He says that I have caused the issues, INCLUDING the speech delays he had, and eating issues, like gagging and choking, which was related to low oral motor tone and sensory issues combined.
And my DS is high fuctioning also. My father just does not get it. He has no desire to read on the subject or talk to any of my son's therapists or doctors.
I too, am so tired of people just thinking my son is a brat. One of my coworkers, who is such a nice woman, her son has CP, but her nephew is high functioning ASD. Her and I share a lot about our lives with each other, including what its like raising our children. And she also understands because she sees her sister's struggles with her nephew. And she tells me how their parents think her sister is making it all up. Well, my coworker actually said to me that she really feels for parents of ASD children, because, and she said this, not me " people can see my son has challenges, family, friends and even strangers give me help, support and are very understanding. But as with my nephew, he looks completely fine. My sister still has the challanges of raising a special needs child, but instead she does it with out support from most of our family or friends, critisizing, and judgement from people. Its so alienating for her."

I dont ever wish that my son had a different obstacle to overcome, because ASD is what he's been delt, but I must say, my coworker was right.