As neuroaffirming (and usually also neurodivergent) parents, we have often already moved to a position of radical acceptance.
Our lives are as they are. We aren’t trying to change them. Our young people are as they are. We aren’t trying to change them.
It brings a lot of peace. To live as we do, to go with the flow. We know what works and what doesn’t and we know better than to fight for control.
If you are a professional working with neurodivergent young people, know this:
We don’t need you to fix our families. We don’t need you to solve what you perceive to be our problems. We don’t need your sympathy or your unsolicited advice. We will ask for help if and when we need it. Your priorities are not always our priorities.
We need you to be with us. To be in acceptance with us. To radically accept our young people, to radically accept our families and to radically accept our lives.
To validate us. To celebrate us.
To connect with our young people, to be in relationship with them, to offer them opportunities, to chronicle their successes and support us in evidencing what works.
We don’t need to be fixed, we just need to be, with you by our sides, supporting us.
Exactly as we are 
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Image Credit: Sarah Arden @ Unsplash
Image Description: A wall corner. One side is black, the other is white. The text on the walls is alternate in colour (black on white and white.on black). The text on the white side reads “This is not a wall to you it is a call to accept differences to stand proud, to feel safe and spread love”. The black side reads “This is a welcome to every person today and always to reject division and speak your mind, to be safe, outside and in.”
