The official definition of autism is “a developmental disorder of variable severity that is characterised by difficulty in social interaction and communication, and by restricted or repetitive patterns of thought and behaviour”. Sounds scary, but really it isn’t. For everyone that lives through this, we all define it differently.
🙃 for me, I define it as Jayden being different, not less
🧐 for my wife, Jayden is defined as intriguing
😍 my eldest daughter Alisha says he is wonderful
😝 my youngest daughter Bianca simply states he is fun.
All in all he might be autistic, but Jayden is much more that the definition.
We’re a family with a child that has autism, that has both parents running 2 businesses from home, throw Home schooling and COVID-19 into the mix and well something has to give….or does it?
It’s amazing how kids adapt to certain environments. My daughters have been our rocks with everything in life. They didn’t shy away from the diagnosis – in fact they embraced it, spoke about it and even wrote about it.
Through all of our tough times we were able to rely on our daughters to support us. The little things they do such as such as looking after Jay, being patient with him and just being big sisters to him carries a lot of weight with us.
Alisha (14) and Bianca (12) are two amazing young girls who everyday impress me with how they have embraced the challenges that we sometimes live with. Alisha and Bianca have never tiptoed around Jayden or treated him differently. There have been times where the eldest has kicked out of her room because Jayden has been a pain, but little brothers are supposed to annoy their sisters. I laugh at their reaction when they get annoyed with him, it means he is doing his job well as a little brother. I love the fact that they play Nintendo with him, teach him to share (and correct him when he doesn’t want to), everything they do with him is to have fun but I also know they are teaching him and making sure he understands.
Donna and I make the time to ensure that each of our children lives a fulfilled childhood. Sometimes I worry when Jayden goes to primary school what will that be like for him. Will he have the struggles that sometimes kids are faced with? It’s unfortunate that the year he starts he won’t have his big sisters there, however, if I know one thing it’s that no matter what happens in life his sisters will always have his back.
So proud of Alisha and Bianca, I couldn’t ask for better daughters.