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How to Survive Autism

A Been-there, Done-that Guide
for Parents

By Barbara Fischkin

Try to be sneaky about your own career in order not to lose it. Don't do all the assignments, etc., the people who run your professional life ask or recommend. Try to do only those assignments that make a big splash so that people notice. This way they may not notice when you disappear to interview yet another behavior modification therapist for your kid.

P.S. If your job is homemaking this applies, too. Buy the cookies. Bake the enormous and gorgeous birthday cake.

I make no case that any of this is easy, just that it can be done with the right mixture of immense selfishness a selfishness that I think ultimately benefits the children, common sense and fearlessness in the face of authority. Having a great, tough husband or wife helps immensely. But I think the right single parent can do it, too. I have seen that! In the end, the good news is that a kid with a disability could save you from hypochondria. You might just be too worried about them to agonize about anything you might have.

Good luck. And please call or write. Remember we are all in this together.

I asked my husband to edit this. Pulitzer Prize aside, he approved all but the instructions about lingerie. Perhaps I owe him a visit to Victoria's Secret.

For more information about Barbara Fischkin, including contact information, visit her Web site.