Another series of autism articles in the Chicago Tribune

[fishchick]

These came out awhile back, but somehow I missed them. This series of articles focuses on the biomedical "treatment" of autism. I have treatment in quotation marks because it doesn't actually, you know, treat autism

Comments

[khyron]

"That was all taken away from me."

Maybe I'm being too cynical or something, but I really think the vast majority of people who decide to become parents think this way...at least in the suburban American culture in which many of us are raised (I would never claim to have an ideally cosmopolitan world view).

I think it's a very small minority of parents who actually think of offspring, at any stage, as individuals with completely unique existences. Most people see making babies as a checkbox on a list, and see the babies as dolls with which to act out fantasies. Working with or being related to so many such people is one of the leading reasons I like my friends so much, they remind me that if and when I become a parent, I won't be alone in thinking differently.

[fishchick]

I don't know. I certainly see a lot of parents, and parenting, both good and bad. The "people don't really care about their kids" thing sometimes strikes me, though, as one of those things that everyone says without having a lot of real idea if it's necessarily true or not. And in my experience, parenting in general is usually hated on, so it makes me skeptical.