The plan for this post is to round up the topic of Aspie parenting with a look at some of the many benefits that aspie parents can give their children.
Emotional Clarity
One unexpected benefit of having difficulty reading and expressing emotions is that you become considerably more verbal in their expression. Aspie parents don't wait for their children to magically read their emotional state - they tell them outright.
This in turn teaches children to express their emotive state verbally. There are no emotional secrets in aspie families - at least, not if you're listening*.
* note that I've often heard people complain about how an aspie partner never lets them know how he's feeling but quite often I find that the "complainers" are looking for an emotive expression rather than a direct statement.
Honesty and Integrity
Aspies are usually sticklers for rules and honesty is one of the most important of these. In a world where it is normal, even expected, that people will tell "white lies" all the time - (for example; no, the dress doesn't make you look fat), you can often rely on aspies to tell the truth no matter how tactless or hurtful it might be.
This can be quite a good thing really because it's nice to know that there is someone you can rely upon for honesty. It often means that you can trust aspie children to follow rules to the letter and that family discussions are open and honest.
Routine and Planning
All children thrive on routine and planning but aspergers and autistic children do so more than most. An aspergers parent needs routine in their life. They need to plan things in intricate detail and they need to make lists. Not surprisingly all this is good for their children who quickly fall into the routine and know, from the various charts and lists around the house, exactly what is expected of them. Of course, this only works when the aspie parent is directly responsible for the children. Aspie moms are particularly effective in this regard - aspie dads, less so.
Shared Special Interests
Aspie Parents will usually pass through a brief period in which their special interest is popular with their children. Unfortunately, with neurotypical children, this moment is all too brief. Aspie parents with aspie children however have a different story to tell. In particular, special interest crossovers occur when the parent's interests are "child-like" in nature. For example, in my case, I've a big interest in Doctor Who, and a lesser but still good interest (and knowledge of) Star Wars. These don't serve me particularly well in terms of employment but it does make me very popular with my kids, both of whom have varying degrees of special interest in these subjects.
Understanding and Suitability
This really only applies to aspie parents with aspie kids. There's nothing quite like insider understanding. Aspie parents know what it's like to be shunned by other children in the playground and usually our memories of childhood (and our childhood feelings) are as clear as yesterday's memories. This makes us considerably more empathetic with our own aspie children than neruotypical parents could be.
Aspie parents with aspie children are also much less likely to put social stress on their children and are less likely to engage in heavily social or strenuous activities (for which low muscle tone is an issue). They are also less likely to induce stress in their children over the display of empathy, tone and eye contact.
Summary
I think that this topic has presented a very positive message about parents with aspergers. Yes, it is recognised that we have our difficulties but it seems pretty clear that our methods of dealing with these difficulties are generally sound and unlikely to harm our children.
Furthermore, it's obvious that aspergers parents bring a number of strengths to their parenting style and in particular, that they are probably more suited to the parenting of children with aspergers, than neurotypical parents.
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