How to tell or not tell your child he has ASD...

The day I've been waiting for finally came around. It was the day Bright Eyes would figure out that I wrote a book about him and want to know why. I've been worried about it for years. Would he hate me? Would he fall into depression? Would he feel manipulated? Used?

He was hanging around my desk while I was typing on the computer and we had this conversation.

Him: "So, why did you write a book about me?"

Me: (uh oh, here we go...) "What book?"

Him: "That book. Love Tears Autism."

Me: "Who said it's about you?"

Him: "Jasmine told me." 

Me (great, thanks a lot, thirteen year old daughter...): "Well, it's mostly about me."

Him: "And...?"

Me: "And a bit about you."

Him: "Why?"

Me: "Um, well, when you were little, you had quite a few problems. You used to throw a lot of tantrums."

Him: "How many?"

Me: "Like, 6 or 7 a day?"

Him (looking impressed). "Oh."

Me: "Yes, so I took you to the doctor, and he said you had something."

Him: "What?"

Me: "A thing called autism."

Him: "What's that?"

Me: "Well, it's kind of when your brain doesn't do everything it should, and you get pretty upset pretty easily and you just need a bit of help."

Him: "Oh. Hey Mum, did you know in Batman, that Robin is a sidekick?"

Me: "Oh really? I think I knew that."

And at that point the conversation was over. But it wasn't a big deal, and it'll open the way to talk to him more in the future when we need to. Phew. 

*And in other news, I made it my mission to get him to do a few jobs around the place while on holidays. This one was successful.