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Because Having Autistic Siblings Isn’t Weird, It’s Just Our Weird.
Embracing the quirks and joys of growing up with autistic siblings.
I can’t exactly remember how old I was when I realised that my two older brothers were autistic. But I know it took me long enough to understand that their behaviours, which appeared annoying to me was not their fault. For instance, communicating with them was very hard and I would get angry when they take some things I would jokingly say literally.
This has led to countless misunderstandings and I would get angry at them especially my older brother. My mom would keep saying that I should let him be and that it was not his fault. Well, I didn’t grasp the concept back then.
As I grew older, I began to observe a pattern with my siblings’ behaviour that were different from every other people I knew. My older siblings were different and in the part of Nigeria where I grew up, I also observed that they were treated differently by others.
I guess it was at this point, I began to realise that my siblings were autistic, even though I did not know that “autistic” was the appropriate term to use.
We all saw them as “not normal” because we believed that there is a certain behaviour they were supposed to have.
