autistic-and-ocd-and-parenting

[autistic-and-ocd-and-parenting]

Babies will sleep anywhere but a safe sleep surface.

[autistic-and-ocd-and-parenting]

Article review for "Love, Joy, and a Lens of Childhood Trauma: Exploring Factors That Impact the Mental Health and Well-Being of Autistic Parents"

Link and thoughts below

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10024273/

This article is available through PubMed Central and is from the journal Autism in Adulthood. It's free to read in the US.

The obvious weakness of this study is an incredibly small sample size

A strength is that it's focusing on self reports of experiences from autistic parents and it's respectful of our self understanding

"Our participants described intimate connections with their children, who were sources of love and joy. Their childhood trauma influenced their parenting experiences. They experienced extreme empathy, perfectionism, and a drive to protect their children from the same trauma."

Yes, all of that 👍

"Participants also experienced pervasive sensory overload from their environments, related to a loss of trusted coping mechanisms when they became parents."

Oh fuck yes 😭

[autistic-and-ocd-and-parenting]

Stuff about parenting while neurodivergent. Focus is on parents like me -- adult or self diagnosed, lower support needs autistic parents, and parents with OCD and mental health challenges. If I find other interesting info I may also post about it, but this is primarily "the resource I couldn't find" for someone like me.

I would be happy to link to blogs that address other atypical parenting experiences, or to hear about yours. Please do share resources!

[autistic-and-ocd-and-parenting]

people want doing the right thing to be like pulling the correct lever at the correct time but actually usually doing the right thing is more like holding a moderate weight at arm's length continuously for seventeen years