The Worst of Both Worlds
So explain this to me. We get a lot of flack from people about Rachel being autistic. Only the professionals who deal with autistic children "get it" because they know what to look for and Rachel is mildly autistic. So yes uninformed people who think that autistic children should just sit in a corner stacking blocks with no awareness of the outside world will be surprised at what Rachel can do. She's also very bright which also has nothing to do with whether or not one is autistic. So we've been dealing with this for a while with people telling us that Rachel isn't autistic and having people act like we're bad parents for trying to get her help because we've labeled her.
Then on the other side we get this crap from anyone who babysits her. No one wants to babysit her. We try and try and try. We have one babysitter who works well with Rachel but unfortunately she's moving and she's involved with a lot of school activities anyhow so often she can't come even when we want her to. Otherwise we'll have someone come and watch her one time. They'll tell us everything was fine and nothing really seems to be bad when we get home but then they'll avoid our calls from then on. We finally found a girl who we thought would work. She came a couple of times and things were great. She spent the entire time in Rachel's room playing with her and never had to resort to turning on the TV. I thought this was GREAT and she seemed to be doing a good job. Then we get a letter in the mail today from her where she said "thank you for the opportunity to babysit Rachel. Unfortunately, I don't feel that I have the skills to attend to her special needs, so I will be unable to continue". What the heck?
So we basically get it the worst of both worlds. We have to fight to get Rachel recognized as autistic but regular people who we would like to help us consider her so awful that they want nothing to do with her. I'm at least glad that this girl did us the service of writing to us and telling us what's going on instead of just avoiding our calls like the others.
So, Alkrea, what do you think of all this? Do you find Rachel really difficult to watch when you've watched her? You've stayed overnight with her before which I have to imagine is far worse than someone whose here just for 2 or 3 hours. If anything we want to understand this so believe me I won't get offended if you tell me that it was extremely difficult. I would think that as long as people know her routine, which we always provide, it should go fairly easily.
Anyhow this really really scares us because there's no way that Rachel can be in the delivery room when Beth goes into labor but I don't know what we're going to do about having someone watch her. This is something that really worries me every time I think about it as I really do not want to leave Beth on her own.
Then on the other side we get this crap from anyone who babysits her. No one wants to babysit her. We try and try and try. We have one babysitter who works well with Rachel but unfortunately she's moving and she's involved with a lot of school activities anyhow so often she can't come even when we want her to. Otherwise we'll have someone come and watch her one time. They'll tell us everything was fine and nothing really seems to be bad when we get home but then they'll avoid our calls from then on. We finally found a girl who we thought would work. She came a couple of times and things were great. She spent the entire time in Rachel's room playing with her and never had to resort to turning on the TV. I thought this was GREAT and she seemed to be doing a good job. Then we get a letter in the mail today from her where she said "thank you for the opportunity to babysit Rachel. Unfortunately, I don't feel that I have the skills to attend to her special needs, so I will be unable to continue". What the heck?
So we basically get it the worst of both worlds. We have to fight to get Rachel recognized as autistic but regular people who we would like to help us consider her so awful that they want nothing to do with her. I'm at least glad that this girl did us the service of writing to us and telling us what's going on instead of just avoiding our calls like the others.
So, Alkrea, what do you think of all this? Do you find Rachel really difficult to watch when you've watched her? You've stayed overnight with her before which I have to imagine is far worse than someone whose here just for 2 or 3 hours. If anything we want to understand this so believe me I won't get offended if you tell me that it was extremely difficult. I would think that as long as people know her routine, which we always provide, it should go fairly easily.
Anyhow this really really scares us because there's no way that Rachel can be in the delivery room when Beth goes into labor but I don't know what we're going to do about having someone watch her. This is something that really worries me every time I think about it as I really do not want to leave Beth on her own.