The impact on our view of ourselves as parents

With so many messages of ‘normal’ in the world, it is difficult to imagine that as parents of neurodiverse children we would not be affected by this, and lay some or most of the blame with ourselves.

As well as the messages around social norms, and how those in our circle can sometimes fail to see that our children may not meet these, there are overt messages in the things we are recommended and advised (often unsolicited) on a daily basis. These interactions rarely acknowledge our specialist experience with our children, and so can frequently leave us feeling below standard, and assist us to lose faith in our abilities as parents.

The irony being that this is often whilst we are working harder than many of our neurotypical peers to gain a fraction of the result. If only we were judged upon effort rather than results!

These are stories of ways in which our view of ourselves as parents has been impacted. These stories acknowledge both the loss of faith as well as leading into some of our pride in overcoming and resisting the harsh and often unfair judgement of ourselves.