Please do yourselves a favour, and read this incredible piece by “Dirty, Naked, Happy”, HERE.

There is generally some disagreement as to whether World Autism Awareness Month is March or April, but quite frankly, I don’t care.  Whatever month is is, awareness month or not, you should read this.

My 4yr old nephew is autistic.  That’s all I am going to say about him really.  It’s not my story to tell.  But this article has given me a new found level of respect for my sister.  I didn’t think it was possible to admire her anymore for the way she looks after by ‘bubbie boy’, but it is.

Being an expat, I only have stolen moments with him.  It is of no surprise that for the longest time I was just a stranger in his eyes.  It hurt incredibly but it’s one of the sacrifices we make when we chose to move abroad.  As such, I miss out of all of the day to day things.  I struggle to understand sometimes why she just doesn’t tell him to sit down and behave like a good boy.  Me.  Yes, me.  Knowing as much as I do.  Reading as much as I have.  Listening to my Mum and Sister as much as I have.  Loving them both with a fierceness that scares me.  I still have these unconscious thoughts sneak in.  I am deeply ashamed of that.

What I do not do however, is voice them.  Be it to my sister, or the mother of a child having a tantrum in the middle of the grocery store.  You never know peoples stories.  It could well be a very poorly behaved spoilt brat, but it could equally be a child with special needs who has just become overwhelmed.  It could well be an uninterested mother who doesn’t care that the child is making a holy show of both of them, it could also be a mother who has to stand quietly by.

Please take a moment to read this mothers’ blog post, and think next time you are about to admonish that mother in that store.