@actuallyautistic Once in a while, I wonder what it might've been like to talk to my parents about being Autistic. I doubt it would've been a useful conversation... but I suspect I would've tried to make it more useful by talking about traits and behaviours first, before calling it autism. It would've been interesting to see how much of it they could relate to.
I'm not entirely sure how my dad would've reacted... the few conversations we had as adults felt strained and awkward.
My mom probably would've been confused about why I would think I'm Autistic (just like she was confused about why I thought I needed therapy) but I doubt she would've rejected or doubted the idea. I don't think she'd really accept or acknowledge it either. For her, it'd be more like "Oh, okay, neat... so when can you go to the store for me? I'm out of Tylenol and Diet Coke"
I can see hints of neurodivergence in my memories of both of them. Alas, they both passed long before I discovered I'm Autistic.
@dave@actuallyautistic yeah. My folks were long gone before I'd ever heard of it.
Something interesting, my NT sisters have one story of their childhoods, trauma and whatnot, and they'd never heard of it either, so Dad is an NT villain in theirs - but my life and marriage are the same and I know I wasn't an NT villain, so my Autistic life story is completely at odds with my NT siblings' NT life stories.
Needless to say, they've been shouting their version at me my whole life, and treating me like an NT villain too.
I'm sorry you have to deal with being made out to be a villain. Ugh, families suck.
I'm estranged from my family, for the most part. I recently reconnected with my brother, and his story seems to be that I'm the genius that nobody knew how to talk to. He also has a very different impression and recollection of my parents... for some reason, he thinks very highly of them.
@dave@actuallyautistic it's part of my theories that we all hate our spankings, but the Allistic changes their mind about it, and that's "growing up" to them. Not to me.
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