ZOOM IN
“
Dear SuperMom
BY LYDIA WAYMAN
Y
ou think it’s a secret, but every kid knows
that every mom has a cape.
Take the standard picky-eating rule. You
checked with doctors and nutritionists, but they
didn’t get it. This kid would scream, gag and sit
there all night without ever touching one bite…
and she would do it day after day.
It was a rough time for both of us, but it wasn’t
long before you learned about the my-kid-is-different powers. They helped you prepare for the
unexpected, like your child’s all-consuming passion for one obscure subject and total disregard
for the other typical kid things. You learned to
patch up the holes when things fell apart on errands or family outings. You got the very highest level of that all-important power—choosing
your battles—and you wished you’d had that
one a long time ago. It would have helped when
your totally typical older one wanted to be
called by another name and wear her dress-up
clothes to the store.
And every real SuperMom knows that kids
simply cannot make a scene in public places, or
they risk not being allowed to go back to that
place for quite a long while. But your kid would
lose it at fireworks, airports, itchy shirt sleeves,
the door on the toy barn that made a “moo”
sound when it opened, Disney villains, and notthe-right-kind of anything.
It took far longer than it ever should have, and
it put the whole family through so much stress
to get there, but you finally learned what you’d
been missing the whole time: AutismMom
powers. You were scared at first because parents whispered and shared stories about their
relatives who had those powers—they were
exhausted!
Everybody knows that kids say please and
thank you. They look at the adult who speaks to
them. Kids keep their rooms clean. Kids like to
pretend. They like to be held and cuddled when
they’re scared, don’t they?
AutismMom powers are incredible! Right away,
they opened the doors to limitless information
and resources. You read about sensory issues,
and the lifetime of screams, tears and food issues made sense. You learned about services
and therapies. You got a tiny bit of hope when
you found other families who had to bring their
own food to a restaurant and guide their adult
children across a street or down a sidewalk, and
these families live in your own backyard! You
realized they’d been there all along, all through
your own tough walk as a mom, and through
your own years as a kid. They’d always been
there—you just hadn’t thought about them—
but now you remember the boy in your fourth
When I was born, your cape was already wellworn, having been through six years of motherhood with my big sister. It didn’t take very long
to start to wonder if maybe this cape wasn’t up
to a kid like me.
Not this kid. I broke all the rules.
That wise and well-worn Mom cape hadn’t met
a kid like me. But it didn’t make sense! How
could you be so lost when you had the EveryMom powers? They arm every mom with everything she needs to know. And everyone says
moms have the strongest powers in the world…
but they weren’t enough!
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ZOOM Autism through Many Lenses
I remember hard times—
screaming at itchy tights,
fears I couldn't name,
teachers who thought
it would fix everything
to tell me I was smart enough
to know beer—
but I never remember
you failing me.
”
ZOOM Autism through Many Lenses
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