“If you have to lie, cheat, steal, obstruct and bully to get your point across, it must not be a point capable of surviving on its own merits.”
-Steven Weber
Yesterday was Pinocchio Day. If you recall the story of Pinocchio, he was a wooden puppet carved by Geppetto, an old man who longed to have a real boy. Pinocchio does come to life bringing joy to Geppetto. But, as the story continues, that joy is replaced with sadness.
Pinocchio, persuaded and tempted by some untrustworthy characters, falls into temptation causing mischief and disappointment. Geppetto becomes distraught while wondering what has happened to his boy. The two are eventually reunited but only after Pinocchio learns some valuable lessons, one of them about lying. The lesson: don’t do it.
Lying is not a joking matter, but I can’t help but laugh. Being in the autism community as long as I have, I’ve heard some doozies. Friends have heard similar jaw-dropping tales.
From the Special Ed representative: There’s no money to cover a 1-on-1 aide.
From the ill-informed pediatrician: Vaccines don’t cause autism!
From the school nurse: No shots? No school for you!
From the bus driver: Don’t look at me. I don’t know how those marks got on your child.
We can obviously recognize the lies now, but wouldn’t it have been great if we saw the person’s nose grow while hearing them?
Being lied to hurts, especially when our children and their health and safety are involved.
If you’ve been lied to by someone you trusted, what were you told? No need to name specific names, but go ahead and give us an idea of who was dodgy and what they told you. Was it an educator? Was it a nurse? How did you reply? And later, when you learned of their deceit, how did you handle the situation?
One of the missions we have here is to expose the lies we were told and to empower parents to demand the truth. The more we learn, the more confidence we have to expose the lies for what they are while showcasing the truth that’s clearly evident. We know that our efforts have opened the eyes of many and are grateful to be part of their discovery.
White, bold-faced or the blackest of black, lies are no good. Telling the truth, as hard as it may be sometimes, is better and takes less effort. The disappointment we’ve felt from those who lied to us and who misled us, and the destruction it’s caused our children, is unacceptable. Imagine how different our lives would be had we been told the truth instead.
We can never erase what’s happened in the past, but we can use that lesson to find a way to go forward. Together, I know we will.
~Mamacita
To read more blogs by Mamacita, Click Here.
I am so sorry for all the pain caused by those who lied and continue to do so. Keep on speaking the truth!
“He will probably outgrow it.”
“Other kids do that, too.”
“He doesn’t need adaptive phy ed.”
“If vaccines caused autism, they’d do something.”
Lying is theft. It is fraud. It is stealing information/assets/reputation from someone or a group of someones that have a right to that knowledge.
It is pure contempt for other humans.
“You’re free to try GFCF but there’s no evidence that it’s beneficial”
“Her night seizures aren’t contributing to poor sleep…here’s a prescription for Klonopin”
“You could be doing harm to your child by opting for private in-home therapy”
“You should let the school at least try to help her on their terms…don’t go in fighting until they’ve had a year to implement their ideas”
“The gfcf diet doesn’t help and is very dangerous.”
“There is no treatment for autism. He *might* improve a little with therapy, but he’ll need to be institutionalized by the time he’s five.”
“He can’t have autism because he can’t walk and autistic kids can walk.”
“He can’t walk because he has autism.”
“He is intellectually delayed.”
“If he doesn’t talk by age 5, he will never talk.”
“The vaccine had nothing to do with it.”
“He’s had diarrhea for three years? Don’t worry, Mom. It’s just toddler diarrhea.”
Said to me when I questioned the doctor (again) about the fact that my almost 18 month old son didn’speak or babble at all and not only couldn’t walk, but couldn’t even crawl on all fours:” Throw away the baby books and quit comparing him to your friends’ kids. Your just an over-reacting first-time mom.”
All of these came from the lips of so-called medical professionals. How did I deal with the lies? We proved them wrong.
Currently, there is no treatment for autism, because it is a genetic disease. And yes, an autistic child may and can improve with therapy, but it is not guaranteed.
Currently, there are MANY treatments for autism. None of which are effective in everyone, but many of which are highly effective for at least a good percentage of people with autism. Autism is NOT a “genetic disease.” Every reasonably good study done in recent years has come to the conclusion that the 1000 genes that add to autism risk are only half of the story. The other half is the way those genes interact with an increasingly toxic environment. Reducing the toxic load helps reduce symptoms of autism to the point where at least a small percentage can recover to the point of losing their ASD diagnosis.