Having a kid who's over 30 means every birthday sparks thoughts of one's own age far more than it did when said kid was three.  I didn't consider his birthdays linked to my age when he was shorter than I was (even when he got to be taller.)   He was kid, I was parent, kids grow up and...we just sort of stick somewhere until they're out of high ( Read more... )

When young people commit suicide, many people wonder why, what drove them to it.  No one has all the answers.  But one common denominator is the crushing hopelessness, the sense that things have gone completely wrong and can't ever improve.  In the case of young college students, their Plan A...the way they thought that first or second year at ( Read more... )

Renee M. Wendel, down at Texas State University in San Marcos, invited some parents to come address one of her classes about what it's like to be the parent of an autistic child.   Predictably (I think) one of the parents couldn't make it, so there were three of us.  All sufficiently educated and well-off to provide our children with more ( Read more... )

We've had a lot of firsts recently, some sort of downers, but today's first is, so far, what our autistic son would call "upper than up."

He started community college in a city 50 miles away this year and after some "bus training" by his father, he wanted to ride the buses alone.   He made it there.  He made it there happy and pleased with himself ( Read more... )