Autism In the News- Loathe Thy Neighbor Letter & Resolving Neighborhood Dispute: Words of Wisdom from a College Kid on the Spectrum

  Check out Natalie's well-reasoned take on that infamous letter.   i am impressed and amazed at the wisdom and understanding of her comments.
  i admit, i read Natalie's post before knowing anything about the situation, beyond vaguely that someone had sent a nasty letter to a parent.
  After following her link, here are some thoughts of mine.

How much time in that yard?

  Ok, is this kid spending all day everyday, alone, in the yard?
  Max used to enjoy spending lots of time in our fenced backyard.  i imagine he might have irritated our neighbors.  Lots of time in a safe place is different from being abandoned outside, as another mom recently recounted to me about neighbors of hers. As told to me, the autistic daughter, a young adult spends all her time in the yard, with passersby for her only company.  (Disclaimer: i know nothing personally about either the situation of the letter, or the one shared with me.  It is also quite possible Max's yard time may have inspired similar feelings.)

Noise Pollution

  My second thought is, if that neighbor was annoyed by the constant stream of noise babble from the yard, she might try imagining it 1000fold in her own house. Enough said.

What is that saying about walk a mile?

  Finally, the neighbor sees what she sees.  She may be right on.  She may not.  But if she does not talk to the mom, she doesn't have a clue what is being done to help the kid. 
  In our case, we have found large increments of time outs from each other help with the intensiveness of the time we must spend together, especially the hard work Max must do to learn how to reach to integrate more successfully (and that Introvert Mom must do in arranging and implementing those things.)
  i hope that in reading this blog, and reading and hanging out with people like Natalie, Max & me, you have a bit more of a clue what our lives are like.