A Neurodivergent Parent's Manifesto

I get to step off the path because the path wasn’t made for me. It was paved by those who believed there was one right way, when my people know a better truth:

We all find our own way.

I am forging a new path, creating a new world, every single day.

I claim my neurodivergent identity with pride, a role model for my children. I am grateful to finally know who I am. I spent too long wandering in the dark unknown. Now I am ready to step into the light of full self knowledge and full self acceptance.

I am ready to know and claim myself.

I know my child in ways others never will. I know what it is to be young, confused, and lost. I also know that I will fight every day to create a better world that has room for me, room for my child, and room for every child who shatters the mold.

I have strength that people never see. I have the ability to speak two languages, to move through two worlds. There’s my inner world, where I am safe and wild and free, and then the outer world, where I translate and contort and adapt to fit. However, this ability exhausts me, and I dream of a world where I do not have to teach this to my children. Where they can show up as fully themselves without translation or adaptation.

I can love my child wildly, beyond measure, and can understand their uniqueness, and still feel exhausted and overstimulated by their needs. It can all be true. I can know why they must climb on my body and touch my face and screech like a pterodactyl. And it can drive me crazy and overtax my system. After all, I am a highly sensitive person parenting another highly sensitive person.

I do not have to be bound by what others may think of me. Comments at the store. Neighbors’ looks. Grandparents’ endless commentary. None of it binds me. I am a wonderful parent because I see my child as they are. Because I love them, just as they are. Because I accept them, just as they are.