Greetings from Spectrumville!
After the birth of her twins, Erica gave up the nursing profession to devote more time to cleaning up the bodily fluids in her own home. She now writes a blog because there is really nothing else to do with her English degree. She prides herself on being able to tell Carson and Cannon apart in 8 out of 10 attempts with 75% accuracy, and she is currently getting her cat assessed because she suspects he also has special needs. In her free time, Erica writes song parodies (much like Weird Al but without the body perm) and she inexplicably runs six and a half minutes late for everything. She drinks to forget, but her children are constantly there to remind her.
Lisa has been an unlicensed therapist and Spectrumville resident since 2006. She is currently in her eighth year of taking a year off from teaching, and she spends her days raising Michael and Eric and a spiteful Betta fish named Tuna that refuses to die. In addition to this blog, she is also the author of a few slutty fanfics and a to-do list that never seems to get any shorter. She has no free time to spend doing anything and she longs for the days when she used to have nice things. Lisa is currently the only member of her family who isn’t heavily medicated and she’s starting to think that it’s about time she jumped onto that bandwagon.
These two forces of nature collided in 2009 after enough cocktails were consumed to make a bad idea seem like a good idea, and one of the duo (nobody can remember who) said, “We need to start writing this shit down.” Thus Laughing Through Tears was born and has been more or less tragically funny ever since.
If your child has been newly diagnosed with autism or if you are an extremely literal thinker, this might not be the right blog for you. We are sarcastic, irreverent, rarely serious, somewhat mischievous, generally discombobulated, and slightly inebriated. Please don’t get yourself too worked up about anything we say…we certainly don’t.
The Authors (left- Lisa, right-Erica)
Questions? Email us at laughingthroughtears@gmail.com
I have never been a blog reader/follower…..till now! I was in love at first read and can’t wait to stumble on more of the funniest, heart-lifting, relatable moments you have put on paper…eehem….screen.
I am a single mom of triplet boys, moving to spectrumville in 2011 after all three left the clinic with a diagnosis (although one made it out with something just as ‘special’: disruptive behavior disorder). I feel oddly akin to you…as if this blog had been made just for me to read and find light in my life’s happenings….thank you thank you thank you for helping me to find perspective and not get too serious about all this…it is just life after all!
Thank you for such a nice comment. We often feel like we are just about to hang it up and quit blogging altogether, so it’s really nice to receive feedback like this.
I’m in love!!!!!! Someone else out that actually not only KNOWS the word discombobulated but can use it in a sentence. My world is complete, well it will be if I can ever get the kid to stop licking the dog. Ahhhhh the wacky fun that is Autism Island
Love your site!! So many thoughts and stories to relate to! Thank you for some much needed laughter! I just started blogging our journey with my son, diagnosed this past December. Would love for you to check it out!
http://iifihadamagicwand.blogspot.com
Anyone know where to find support/resources for autistic moms? Not moms of autistics but moms who are autistic? I think society and the autistic community fail to realize autistic kids grow up into autistic adults. We don’t just get a social skills permit the day we turn 18.
A few that I know of:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Karlas-ASD-Page/155369821204141?sk=info
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Women-with-autism/215346795220936
http://asdculture.wikispaces.com/
http://asparenting.com/
http://autismwomensnetwork.org/
And there’s a FB group for autistics who are parents. you contact melody latimer of asparenting and ASAN and she can add you.
ASAN = http://autisticadvocacy.org/
You two are my new heroes! And my kid (an Aspie) totally got in deep shit the first day of preK for licking a now honor student (who’s a brat). I WANT that bumper sticker!
Jessi
I started blogging a few months after my own kiddo’s dx: http://www.deciphermorgan.blogger.com
Hi Erica & Lisa,
Sorry, couldn’t find a contact email for you so thought I’d leave this here.
A couple months ago I started a new FB page called Autism Blogs Around the World. I had planned on sending out a nice, fancy invitation to all of my blogger friends and invite them to join the page.
Well, here I am two months later and I still haven’t found the time to make a pretty invite. So, here’s your official, not so fancy, invite!
The purpose of this page is to bring bloggers from around the world, who write about autism related topics, to one place where we can all post our latest blog posts and invite our current fans to come and be fans of this new FB page.
We all have great support, stories, resources, services and products to share but sometimes it’s hard to get your message out there. The longer I’ve been doing this the more I’m learning that it’s all about networking and sharing! So that’s what this page is about. It’s about getting our message out and sharing our networks with each other so that we can all reach a wider audience and in that way support more people.
Sound good?! So here’s the link to the page: https://www.facebook.com/AutismBlogsAroundtheWorld
Feel free to join and start posting links to your blog posts. And of course links to any other interesting stuff is also very welcome.
Like I said, it’s a totally brand new page. So we’re starting from scratch here. But I figure if we all start inviting our current fans that we can get this going in no time.
Looking forward to having you join me in this!
Lori
P.S. You can check out my blog here: http://applestooranges.ca/wp/blog-2/
A breath of fresh air…boy did I need this blog right now. Thank you for the much needed laughs and knowledge that I am not alone in this. Keep it up!
Found your blog from 5 ways to piss of an autism mom! Have read about half a dozen posts and have laughed and cried – you girls are fantastic. As a single mom to a teenage boy with Aspergers, I get it! Keep writing and I’ll keep reading.
You sound like my kind of people.
When’s the BOOK scheduled for release….
Loved 5 Ways to Piss off an Autism Mom. When you say “My autistic kid will lick your honor student” did you literally mean “lick”, like like with your tounge? (Not “lick” like “beat up”?) Just asking, because my 2 ASD kids would literally lick someone. With their tounge. Ha-ha!
Hahaha, yep, that’s what I meant– mine would literally lick someone, too!
You two are my new HEROES! I was laughing so hard over your article on the 5 Ways to Piss off an Autism Mom, that I could barely finish it! Everything you said, was right on the money! I only wish you had made it a list of 10, adding on something about all the biomedical crap we go through like with gfcf and how there’s always someone else out there who’s done more!
You two are a breath of fresh air! Thank you!
Thank you very much! We touched on that a little bit in the post “Are We Aware Yet?”. http://laughingthroughtears.com/2011/04/01/are-we-aware-yet/
Just had lunch with two other women today who had “special needs” children like mine. The best lunch ever!! We just cracked ourselves up and had a ball. I could never have joked around with my “typical” friends like that. maybe life in the stim world isn’t so bad.
Elizabeth D. Houston
I agree!
Is there any way to contact? I am a journalist and am sourcing a story. Would like to talk.
Hi…I have twin boys nearly 22 months old. I was just wondering what the back story is on Erica’s twin boys…how they were diagnosed, at what age, what symptoms did they manifest and at what age. i can’t find any “about us” type of stuff on here. thanks
abby
Hi, Abby. I just sent you an email. One of these days we’ll make this authors page more useful.
This explains some of my back story:
http://www.multiplesandmore.com/guest-blog-posts/into-the-wide-blue-yonder/
Found your blog on Blogger Top 50 (I’m a few behind you!)
It’s great you have each other. I don’t know anyone personally besides me who has a child on the spectrum. It would definitely be a help to have someone just understand, rather than tell me how else to try something. lol. Check me out when you can. I will be following you! (In a non-creepy kind of way.)
Ladies, I feel right at home when reading your blog. Acceptance Park is a Utopia I have found only once or twice myself. I continue to look for another day, another park to have such an accepting experience. However, I usually am prepared to rip open my jacket and expose my shirt to gawkers that reads, “Look again and I’ll HandFlap YOU!”
I have one son that is typical (whatever that is) and one son on the spectrum (whatever that isn’t). If you’re ever looking for a 3rd writer with writing experience and experiences that would send us all into Stim City, let me know.
Thank you for your blog and for laughing through tears. I lift my kleenex to you, CHEERS!
You need to add “Writer” to your bio.