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Parent's Voice on Autism

Christy Reinhardt lives in Dutchess County, New York, with her husband and two sons. Since her son Crew was diagnosed with autism as a toddler, Reinhardt has been learning all there is to know about life on the autistic spectrum. Along the way, she created Crew's Voice, an organization to help other parents raise children with special needs.

Wish List

Wed May 17 6800

You know Christmas is over when your autistic son is already typing up notes:

Valentine’s Day 5 presents
St. Patrick's Day 7 presents
Easter 4 presents
June is the big one – Build a post office!

Every other holiday aside from Christmas, I give VHS tapes as presents. They cost more to ship from Amazon than to purchase. But, seriously, a post office? For Crew's birthday last year, he wanted a library. We all thought that was so cute. He said with a library, he could arrange all of his VHS tapes in one place. He would stamp them with a date and use a lamp to pretend it was a scanner. And they say autistic kids are not supposed to pretend on their own.

Then after Christmas last year, Crew started asking, “Library for my Birthday? June birthday, Library.” I never said yes or no, but shook my head to prompt him to stop asking as if I were saying yes.

My dad eventually gave in. He said Crew had to have a library; that's all he wants. Everyone made every excuse on why Crew should get a library and how good it would be for his disability. However true or not, we could not afford one, so grandma and grandpa foot the bill! My husband went to work transforming the shed into a library. He ran the electric and set up shelves and a TV all before Crew got home. Seeing my son’s face and excitement upon discovering his new library reminded me of why we do what we do for our children.

Still, now what? We have five months of hearing about the post office and how we need to go to the building center…and yeah, win a scratch off!! If we say no now, Crew will never accept it. It will be months of crying and pleading. With me nodding to imply yes, he stops and accepts it. Of course to Crew, he thinks he is actually getting a post office. I am telling you, he is a made to be lawyer. Crew can convince you to say anything to make his questions and pleas stop.

Alas, I am left wondering, do we start building? Do we start saving all of our change? Do we send Crew to his grandparent’s house for the weekend and tell them to ask Crew what he wants for his birthday (so mean). Or do we tell my son no?