Show Notes
Terry sits down with Erin to talk about Harry. The autism diagnosis. The day Erin told him. What he thought it meant, what it actually meant, and the long road from there to here.
He takes Erin back to the early signs, those scary first few years, and the questions he didn't know how to ask. They get into where he and Erin weren't on the same page, and how they found their way to it. And Terry says the thing he finds hardest of all: how it feels to never hear his nonverbal son call him Dad.
It's not a sad episode. It's an honest one. The good, the hard, the moments that wreck you, the ones that make you laugh. If you're parenting an autistic children, or loving one from any angle, you're not on your own listening to this.
#KeepingItRealWithErinAndTerry #Autism #AutismDad #NonverbalAutism #AutismParenting #AutismFamily #AutismAwareness #NoGloss
More from Keeping it Real with Erin and Terry
In this week’s episode, Erin and Terry open up about a summer that was one of the hardest times of their lives. Their beautiful son Harry was in pain he had no way of explaining, crying for 12 hours on end and hurting himself, and the whole summer felt like lockdown.
In this week’s episode, Erin and Terry look back at the many comments left by autism parents following the release of Episode 8, “what happens to Harry when we’re gone”.That episode touched a nerve with so many SEN parents all dealing with the same terrifying problem of how to prepare for a future where they’re not around anymore to take care of their beautiful children. Emotionally raw and angry in parts, the episode reflects the feelings of our viewers. Feelings that only families living in the situation can truly understand. Terry takes a strong stance on the severe shortage of adequate support from government services, and the well meaning but ultimately unhelpful comments from friends and others who just don’t get it. Erin brings her usual conscientious approach and insights, as always, wearing her heart on her sleeve and calling it exactly how it is.Tell us in the comments: SEN parents, what’s the one thing you wish people said to you instead of ‘I don’t know how you do it’? New episodes every Thursday. Subscribe to get them when they’re hot! #KeepingItRealWithErinAndTerry #Autism #SEN #Marriedwithkids #Hardtruth
No specific topic this week and no guest. Just hot takes, two very different opinions, and nowhere to hide. Keep it, or cut it, and neither of them is allowed to say ‘it depends’!
Erin’s off this week, so Terry brought in his friend and fellow musician Jake Suleman, and it turned into one of the most honest conversations of the series. Both of them are autism dads. Terry to Harry, Jake to his 8-year-old daughter Esme. Two totally different kids of the same age. Despite the differences, Terry and Jake share the same lifestyle and same highs, lows, and hard days. Terry shares the moment from a few days before recording that stopped him in his tracks. Harry saying his first word with real purpose. Jake talks about how Esme sees the world: no concept of violence, unable to spot a bully because she assumes everyone talking to her is a friend. They get into how differently Esme hears the world; super-sensitive to sound, picking up songs she can’t stand even when they’re barely audible. And they land on the thing neither of them takes for granted: that their careers in music simply wouldn’t exist without help from their families and their wives holding everything together at home. Two dads, two guitars, and the kind of conversation that doesn’t happen often enough. Tell us in the comments: if you’re raising an autistic child, what’s the moment that hit you harder than you ever expected? New episodes every Thursday. Subscribe to get them when they’re hot! #KeepingItRealWithErinAndTerry #AutismDad #Autism #NonverbalAutism #AutismParenting #AutismFamily #NoGloss
If your partner put a fire emoji on a photo ofan attractive person on Instagram, would you care? Most people have an answerimmediately. Almost no couple has ever actually discussed it.