Blog 6 - Unemployed, Covid-19 and autism

Generally, rainbows are considered a good sign. The picture was taken on my way to work and sadly it was my last day at work too. I was terminated without cause. 

This pandemic or Covid 19 that we're experiencing impacted everyone at different levels of hardship. I don't think I have to enumerate them one by one but I'm pretty sure you know what I mean: from losing their jobs, loved ones and up to being quarantined or isolating. 

In my case, it's a lot tougher because not only I lost my job, my son has severe autism too. My son is 13 years old and he's non-verbal. He doesn't know how to read, he's not potty trained, you have to help him when eating and the list of the things he can't do will pretty much fill this blog entirely. 

Because of my son's condition, our lifestyle is very limited. My wife and I can't go out and take my son to a gathering. It's either my wife or I will go. Work schedules too can be challenging. When the pandemic broke out, the school was cancelled as well and so our son needs to stay home. Good thing work from home was an option in our jobs. 

You may say "what's the big deal? Normal kids stayed home too?". Well, my son is a special child which simply means he has special needs. Unlike other normal kids, you can't give my son some activities such as assignments, online learning, games, etc. and expect it to do these activities on his own. 

Right now, we're teaching him matching shapes and colours. That's how basic it is. He likes solitary activities which is a no, no for an autistic kid. His mind has to be occupied by interacting with a human being. Otherwise, he'll not improve or worse, regress. 

TV doesn't even pique his interest. We have Disney+, YouTube, NetFlix, you name it but nothing works for him. 

My son likes to do is eating. He's a hearty eater. He doesn't like soft drinks, juice and milk. He only drinks water. 

Autism doesn't have a cure. Some kids got better and some kids are not. There are some autistic kids that have a high level of intelligence like having a photographic memory. In my son's case, it's the opposite. He's 13 years old but has a brain of 1-year-old, literally. 

So looking for a job that will fit our situation will be tough. All I have to do is be tougher and hope for a big miracle and hoping someday autism will just miraculously disappear.  

My son's hand holding my thumb.