Reflections
Essays from Kristy Forbes exploring PDA, autistic experience, parenting, identity, care, systems and the ordinary moments that shape family life.
I am going home to do differently
Good morning.
I’m sitting out on the balcony, really loving the breeze and the trees and the birds and I’ve been thinking about going home in four days.
How much I miss my little girls and my husband and my home.
This...
I love you all
Scrolling, reading, listening
Looking for loving energy
Kindness, gentleness, empathy and compassion
I am more present now, than ever
More aware of what energy I cultivate and put out into the universe right now
I’m...
This is not about our children
Do you know how often families come to sit in consultation with me, with the intention of understanding their childrens' behaviour?
The number one focus is usually on our children, on how we can help them.
Guess what?
...An opportunity to see ourselves
My eldest daughter
My first child
She bore the brunt of my raw and heavy trauma
Reflected back to me
All the parts
Like a mirror
I was inaccessible
Locked away inside
Angry
Threatened
I didn't know what I know ...
Let us be kind
Dearest NeuroDivergent kin,
My kin who hoard
My kin who are tactile defensive
Touch aversive
My kin who self isolate
My kin who home educate
Never has there been a time
Where we know
More than ever
That our ways...
Stand proud in our identity and culture
It is a wild offence
To stand upon the same ground
As our autistic ancestors
Who went unidentified
Dismissed, misunderstood
Invalidated and gaslit
And to not stand proud
In our identity and culture
With positive ...
I learnt to always pretend
I used to regularly go through periods in my life
Where I could feel myself unravelling
This could obviously only mean that
I spent the rest of the time tightly wound
Always hypervigilant about my behaviour
The way ...
Open Hearts
I prioritise autistic voices.
I listen to and respect the lived experience of our community.
BUT I don't have to bully, shame and harass non autistic professionals and families in order to advocate or to be respected b...
Morning Joy
Joy
Morning joy
I’m always up before the birds and the sun
Always been a morning person
Partly due to a strategy developed in my early twenties
To hit the deck as soon as my eyes opened
In order to avoid falling i...
Learning as a PDAer
As a PDAer, I cannot be seen or known to be learning anything from anyone else.
Ugh. Really?
Yep, really.
No help with homework thanks. No putting my hand up in class.
Always pretending to understand everything when ...