Things misunderstood about autism

This was an answer I gave on Quora

It's much easier for people to understand a disability like blindness or being in a wheelchair. There often isn't anything visible with an Aspie.

My Aspie kids didn't get the same kind of sympathy. They're bright. They learn easily what other kids struggle to learn, but they don't understand basic social situations that are easy for other kids to understand. Other kids and parents are jealous.

So often I'd get "He's a bright boy. He'll figure it out." Well now he's 27 and he still hasn't, despite genius IQ. IQ and EQ aren't the same. People don't get that.

What follows is a sort of a stream of consciousness of what it was like when the older one, who has the worse Aspergers, was little — things I was often thinking:

"No I can't get him to comply with instructions. No I'm not making him wear girl's clothes. That's his idea. No it's not safe to walk with him as a toddler without a harness. No he won't hold my hand.

"Their kids are docile. They don't understand the concept of a kid who is totally different.

"Parents run the other way when they see me coming, because they don't want to have to deal with me and my kids."