This is what Autism looks like.

I'm a mother of 3 kids. A 3 year old boy on the spectrum, an almost NT 2 year old little girl and a 3 month old little girl.When telling people my son is autistic, they are surprised to see my son smiling and playing boy games. Being sweet and affectionate, pulling your hand to play with him, cause you know, Autism is supposed to be a kid in the corner of a room rocking back and forth non-stop and not looking at you (eye roll).It has been quite hard on the grandparents. My parents, formerly being elementary school teachers, denied it for a bit then they came over to our house and took care of my two children when I went in the hospital to have my third child, then they saw it. I can still see the sadness in their eyes, they love my son to pieces and they worry.My in-laws was another story. While my parents live abroad and only visit once a year, my in laws live nearby and we don't see them often it feels like sometimes. My father in law is a workaholic man and my mother in law is a busy woman, she stays at home but keeps up with the house and babysits to take care of the grandkids in the family. I see her once a week for sure.At 15 months, I noticed something different about my son. Being a first time mother, it's hard to tell. But I had a feeling something was off. Speaking to my parents and my in-laws calmed me down a bit but it the end the inevitable came.An official diagnosis was made before he turned two. Then the denial phase came. My parents see it now, my husband and I definitely know. My mother in law finally came around but my father in law sees nothing.It's been annoying talking about it. My husband and I have no one to talk about this to. We go to his parents since they are supposed to be supportive and understanding. But anytime something related to autism comes up, we have to hear my FIL talk about how he's fine, all kids do that, boys will be boys.When we say his therapy is been a huge game changer, our ABA providers are an amazing team, sometimes I vent about how my day went and the things you go as a parent of an autistic child. Sometimes I just need to vent. But we always get the speech of how the people do nothing, his progress is something it was gonna happen anyways, it invalidates all our efforts and struggles we go through. It's sad.I want my son to be accepted for who he is.And HE IS AUTISTIC.Autism is part of who he is, and it doesn't make him wrong, it's just different.I'd like to share some pictures:http://ift.tt/2oxfzDL http://ift.tt/2oTIPRt http://ift.tt/2ox2hXK'd like to show my perspective and this is what Autism looks like. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2nWiKnj