Have we talked forgiveness yet? Anyway I am the mom with an autistic child and incidentally feel that we have been treated better by the general public than my own family alot. For instance my brother thinks my son is a spoiled brat and I am a bad parent. I was really angry at first but now don’t go out of my way to have my son around my brother because I want my son to be around people that think he is amazing and accept him for who he is. Have I forgiven him? 95% of me would say yes, but then I see pictures of him being a wonderful dad to his kids on Facebook and I just don’t understand how someone can be so great with their kids and then turn around and say that about my child or me. I know this is the thought I am having generating the feeling… maybe I should just de-friend him, I don’t know. The other thing is that my grandma said ‘I don’t know why you try so hard when he (my son) will never be any better than he is’. I have kind of taken the same route and I don’t go see my grandma alot anymore and we used to be really close. Then she asks me why we don’t come see her and I just say we are busy. I don’t know. I know that my thoughts led to my feelings, but hearing those statements just crushed me at the time. And they were from 2 very important people in my life (false belief alert: family should be nice). I know different now and I know I am an amazing parent. But I am still hesitant. Raising a kid with autism is hard enough… even without others so called input. Maybe I should call in or be coached live. I thought I would start here. Thanks