Does your family have any misconceptions about autism?

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My mom raised me a similar way. She and dad were told I would never learn to talk or take care of myself and they didn't listen so they set high goals for me. People thought my mom was crazy for such a thing. She refused to treat me like I was disabled and incapable. I was expected to follow the rules and behave well and got consequences.

Today think like my mother does for your child, people won't think you're crazy like they did back then. My have times changed.

My mother also doesn't consider me disabled. She says I have a disability but I am not disabled.

It sounds like to me you basically need to have a nervous breakdown before they help you. That is like expecting my husband to have massive seizures and the inability to move before getting him help for his feet that causes him pain. My mom's family basically had to wait until my aunt became a severe schizophrenic before getting her help and finally allowing her to be hospitalized for a long period of time. That is what the laws have done that were meant to protect disabled and the mentally ill but instead it has done the opposite for those who actually need it. It's also like how doctors might refuse to give a child a diagnoses until things go so bad in school they finally give them a diagnoses because the kid was too mild but yet were different enough to be impacted by it but it wasn't an impairment enough for the doctors until they get a nervous breakdown or something and are about to be thrown into a behavior class. And doctors won't prescribe my husband a disabled a scooter so he basically needs to lose his ability to walk before they give him one and maybe giving us a mini van for the scooter. My husband found one at a estate sale and got it for $50 bucks and got new batteries for it. He uses it to go to the store and stuff and he has noticed how much it has helped him and when we went to Wisconsin, we used wheelchairs in airports and at places and it helped him out a lot and made him enjoy our vacation. And doctors say no to a scooter?

Well, I was fairly fortunate in that regard, because if I took something literally then it was often met with my family's amusement, and comments on how I'm just like my mother. They never called me stupid for it.

In fact, people often called me smart in regards to certain areas, and just saw my literalness as an endearing or otherwise quirky trait.

My brother is the absolute worst. He pretty much believes that unless your tongue can't fit in your mouth all humans are built to the same factory standards, and I'm constantly getting the old "You just don't want to learn" and "You're not trying hard enough."

My family had misconceptions about my autism when I was younger. My dad once told me in a patronizing way, "There are a lot of things that most people can do that you will never be able to do, and part of it is because you have a learning disability." I became cynical, lost all hope for my future and became a hippie. It's hard to believe about the hippie part with the things I talk about on WP these days.

Oh, yeah. They think autism is Rain Man, and therefore, I don't have it.

I hate the Rain Man stereotype. Either people don't think I'm autistic, or they think that I must be just like Rain Man.

My mom's developed some pretty weird misconceptions. She thinks that autistic people never question their differences and can't be aware that they're autistic, even high up on the spectrum. Like that anecdote about insanity: An insane person never questions their sanity. An autistic never questions their neurotypicality. I'm not sure how she made that assumption, but it's there.

^^^^
This.
She does not like that they were unseperated.

My mother and step-father think that "autistic" and "stupid" and synonyms. My step-father doesn't think that autistic people should have the right to vote, and will often mock them whenever the issue of autism is discussed. You know, the usual ableist bs.