This year I have contributed several articles to The Mighty. My stories have discussed our life with our special needs son and I have tried to be respectful when discussing him and the issues surrounding him. I have slowed down in recent months because the content and amount of what I share has been weighing on my heart.

The Mighty has recently experienced a backlash of hurt feeling regarding a post written by a contributor who made light of autistic meltdowns. Many people who have autism were hurt by the post. Like the author of the piece in question, I have also made light of tough situations. Upon further reading and thought, I have deleted some of my posts that have more of a place in my personal archives than in that of the public eye.

My intention in writing about our lives has always been to open up and hope readers who were facing similar situations could relate and maybe not feel so alone. I have felt a great deal of loneliness surrounding our situation and I wanted to reach out to others. But…. but I do not want to do so and cause any emotional harm or backlash to my son.

I will continue to write about his bravery, strength, and how he inspires us daily. I may touch upon the difficulty of our lives, but I will try to mostly discuss my own personal issues.

I am not bowing out, just readjusting my mission to help him and assure him that I left him a positive future. I want him to know his mom wrote to get the disease Tuberous Sclerosis Complex known so a cure can be found. If he were to grow and have the ability to read my work, I want him to read first hand how much better our lives became because once he was a part of it.

Thanks again for reading and I hope to continue to contribute something good to my son’s future.

*d*