Being Perceived As A Bad Mother
Does anyone else feel as if they’re treated like a bad mother due to their autism? Like, if I was a blonde 30 year old neurotypical business woman, people would be praising my parenting, but instead people always go out of their way to correct me, and it’s virtually never warranted or necessary. Just yesterday, the daycare lady humiliated me in front of everyone because “I must not be washing the bottles” even though I sanitize them literally every night, and the smell turned out just to be the normal goat formula smell. Or once, I had a CPS worker come because my daughter has Mongolian marks on her butt (blue spotty patches common in indigenous babies). Or once I had two people in the same week criticize me because my baby looked uncomfortable in her insert. I asked her pediatrician and they said it was fine and she was literally just asleep. I doubt neurotypical women get so often shamed over such small innocuous stuff. I feel like people never see autistic mothers, so when they see them something feels off and they have to find every way that they are somehow abusive or neglectful to explain their unease. Recently, I’ve also become super anxious that people think I’m a drug addict due to my inability to mask. I feel like people never treat me with any dignity in any aspect of my life, but especially parenting.