Why do so many of us live in denial about our lives? I recently came across a story about a woman in Minnesota. She has an autistic son that was being disruptive in church. After trying to make arrangements with the family, the church had a restraining order taken out to keep the woman’s son out of the church. She is in court now for violating the restraining order. This whole situation is so stupid.

First of all, if you have an autistic child please don’t be personally offended. The truth is that a lot of autistic parents become so used to seeing and helping their children that they stop seeing their behavior as completely disruptive. After a while, some parents just become accustomed to what they have to do to manage their children. The issue is that if the child is genuinely disruptive around others, this could be a huge problem. I’m not saying that autistic children should be taken away from society, I’m just saying that as a parent you have to take other people into account too.

Church is a something that most people take very seriously.  When you go to church you want to be at peace. You want to listen to the service and absorb what you are hearing. Having a child that screams or calls out or acts out IS disruptive - even if that disruption is because of natural causes. If I have a disease that causes me to scream out loud at regular intervals and I go into a court of law, they are going to either remove me from the court room until I’m needed or they will just ask me to leave because the proceedings are being recorded and they need quiet. It is simply unacceptable to be loud. If you bring a screaming child into court, they are going to ask you to leave. It’s not because they dislike the child, it’s because they need quiet.

Anyway, the church offered to let this woman and her son view the service via a video feed displayed in real time in the basement of the church. This woman said no. Now here is where the very stupid part comes in. This woman’s son isn’t some little pint sized boy - he is over 6 feet tall. An autistic kid who is little and kicks and screams is one thing, but a 13 year old autistic kid over 6 feet tall who is also 225 pounds is a completely different story. This woman said that her son has panic attacks that require her and her other family members to SIT on him to restrain him until he calms down. Sometimes they have to restrain his hands and his feet too! According to her, she has a separate play room for her other children so her autistic son won’t destroy their things. According to the church members, her son has has hit a child at the church, nearly knocked over elderly parishioners while bolting from his pew, has spit at people and has urinated in the chapel. The mother has said that she won’t accept anything other than her son being inside of the church just like everyone else. The problem is that her son is NOT like everyone else! Why do people not realize that they need to think about other people - not just themselves! This woman is willing to endanger people so that her son can sit on a pew!! Isn’t God everywhere?? Doesn’t his/her reach extend beyond a church pew? Won’t her son enjoy the service just as much from another room of the church?

One woman said that the problem is that people don’t understand autism. That’s not the problem. They understand it and they see the results - that’s why the church members have tried to make accommodations for the family. The problem is that the MOTHER doesn’t understand autism!!! That’s right!! If she did understand it, she would understand that part of having a child with autism is making sure that they don’t harm themselves or others! The church gave her options and she just isn’t willing to take them. She separates the kid from her other children at home, but wants other people to ignore his behavior while in church. That’s just very stupid.

Here is a link to the article.