Family In Shock After Hate Letter Targets Teen With Autism

[Butterbean]

31. My autistic kid can get loud in the back yard, too. Thankfully, we have great neighbors.

It's hard, walking that line between wanting to let him get it all out in a safe environment and the part of me that says it's our yard, damn it, he can do what he wants, and then worrying about him being too loud for the neighbors.

He frequently goes to the back fence and yells the name of the child who lives behind us over and over again, bangs sticks on the fence to get his attention, because he really likes that child. I always redirect him and tell him it's inappropriate to yell repeatedly at someone, etc., and try to coach him in "this is how you ask someone to play with you" techniques, but damn. Sometimes he's just going to hang out in the back yard and be loud, and I'm not going to give a shit, because it's better that he's running around in our 3/4 acre fenced in, wooded yard being noisy and active than destroying stuff in the house or harming his little brother. God bless our neighbors, they have been so understanding. Our next door neighbor always does an extra lap with his lawnmower for my son if he's outside when he's mowing, because my son LOVES lawnmowers and gets a huge kick out of running alongside the fence while the neighbor rides by. We have been blessed, I know.

All my girlfriends with moderate to severe autistic kids have this same issue, though. Our kids are just loud sometimes, and there isn't shit you can do about it. You just have to deal. Thankfully I live in a very very VERY autism-friendly community that embraces our special needs population instead of shunning them. I can't imagine the heartbreak of living in a place where people do the horrible things in the OP.