Finding Your Parenting Path with Your Autistic Child

Abstract

Parenting a child on the autistic spectrum can feel like walking an emotional tightrope. Parents try so hard to balance love, guidance, expectation, and consequences without falling into the darkness of their worries and fears. The burden of self-judgment can send a parent into the depths of guilt if their verdict is that they have taken the wrong step with their child. The wish to do what’s best, and confusion surrounding what’s best, makes raising an autistic child a confounding mystery. Unintended parent precipitated problems can emerge, such as overindulging out of guilt and anxiety, expecting too little to protect oneself from being disappointed, and allowing fear to undermine parental authority [1,2].