33. Give Yourself Grace for Your Autism Journey with Alicia Trautwein

Aug 13

In this week's episode of Mother's Guide Through Autism, I interview Alicia Trautwein who is the creator of The Mom Kind, writer, advocate, motivational speaker, and mom of three autistic children.

On her blog The Mom Kind, she shares the ups and downs of raising three autistic children while being on the autism spectrum herself, along with providing valuable resources to autism parents.

She shares her personal journey of growing up with autism but not knowing she had it and being diagnosed after her children's diagnoses of autism at the age of 33.

Her autism diagnosis as an adult has helped her to bring more self-acceptance and understanding to her childhood as well as her current challenges.

She shares what it might be like to have three children on the spectrum and how everybody’s sensory needs are clashing at times. One could be needing quiet and one might be needing to scream.

She emphasizes the importance of creating her own space to make time for herself to decompress, and urges other autism moms to get the care they need for themselves.

"You have to take care of you first. You can’t take care of everyone if you’re falling apart," Alicia tells us.

She also talks about the difficulty of getting her daughters diagnosed since autism was not considered common among girls and how that needs to change.

In addition, she offers advice for this difficult time of covid and for the autism journey in general. She reminds parents to ask for services their children are entitled to whether they're attending school or not and to provide stability and structure as well as a space to decompress.

Finally, she tells parents to give themselves grace for the regression that might take place and the difficult things that will come up, and to remember to let the small things go and enjoy spending time with their children.

Enjoy this episode!