Once more, as prepared as I was for this outcome, it was still a bit of a gut-punch to hear those words again and with a different child—“your son has autism”. Let me be VERY clear here, as I know there has been a lot of backlash received by parents for describing the “grief” they felt upon their child receiving an autism diagnosis—I’m not in any way implying my son having autism makes him “less-than” or imperfect. In fact, I believe the exact opposite is true. I do think it’s important, however, to allow parents and guardians some space to accept that the life they may have prematurely carved out in their minds for their child (as parents do!) will be different, and often times much more challenging.