HomeCrazzyHome

To begin with…having any and ALL of my children are the highlights of my life. I don’t play favorites.

But having said that…PanKwake’s #PDA (Pretty Damned Awesome/Amazing formerly Pathological Demand Avoidance) one of the #autisms changed my life.

For the Better!

I know myself more deeply…like myself better…am more confident…more accepting…and HAPPIER than I have ever been.

Yes, we deal with the same challenges as everyone else…clothes that don’t feel right, restricted diet, sensory overload, sleepless nights, and meltdowns…among others.

But NONE of that stops us from loving the life we live.

And now that we share it with our beloved Cookie Monster who understands and accepts us as we are…

Life is truly good!

Being #HappilyAutistic and #ProudlyPDA is really simple. And incredibly hard. It is only 4 steps…

Acceptance…

Understanding…

Unconditional Love…

And a lot of laughter thrown in for spice.

But getting to this point, finding our #HappilyAutistic and #ProudlyPDA has taught me as a parent so much. Not just about my child. This world…people…society. But about myself.

For every moment and instance that I was learning to accept, understand, and unconditionally love PanKwake…I was learning to do so for me as well. As a result…

I am a better mother…better parent…better human being.

And when you learn to laugh instead of cry…you have a WONDERFUL Life.

You see the secret of life is…

You have absolutely, positively ZERO control over what happens to you…

And autism is not even the worst…cancer, war, starvation, watching your child die in your arms for lack of clean water.

But what you do have is total and complete control over reaction to those challenges.

You can let them beat you…and your little human. You can spend your time as Don Quixote did…tilting at wind mills. Or you can pick your battles…and face them with…

Positivity!

You see the glasses that you choose to wear can actually determine how you see things…and ultimately the very outcome of the battle.

Don’t believe me?

This is one of PanKwake’s fav new board games.

The object of the game is to pick a card then draw a picture of what is on it. The other players try to guess what you are drawing. The rub is that you must wear glasses that alter how you see things.

Now my drawing is so bad that I am not sure the glasses make that much difference…but the point is…

How you see things determines the outcome…

And the beauty of the game is the other lesson…

LAUGHTER!

No, autism or Pretty Damned Awesome/Amazing is not what defines us at #HomeCrazzyHome. Happiness and pride in being exactly who each of us is…unapologetically…that is what makes us…

#HappilyAutistic…

and… #ProudlyPDA.

Hopefully, one day other families blessed with autism and PDA will discover this secret. And the negativity that surrounds those labels will melt away. It really is as easy as those 4 steps…and as hard when you insist on wearing Googly Eyes of negativity.