After watching the first season of “Parenthood”, I’m delighted, yet scared.
I believe the story of Max and his family so far is good. My 8-year-old son was diagnosed 2 years ago and I could relate much to his parents’ reaction. Some of it was a little over-the-top (the friends and the index cards) but still got the message through about how overwhelming that first year is. Although Max himself does not resemble my son much, the story really hit home.
My fear is whether or not NBC will keep up the sensitivity and respect to such a sensitive issue. The MEDIA has such a big influence on common opinion and WE as parents have a tough enough job helping our kids the best way we can. Fighting public opinion and misconceptions makes our job so much harder.
When the media portrays autistic individuals as inferior, unintelligent, misfits, aggressive, a safety risk and socially inept, our kids’ struggle to “fit in” and have equal opportunities in society becomes even greater. I say this because I’ve heard that in some European countries, the public opinion is already pretty negative toward “Aspies”, due to the media’s portrayal. Young Aspergians there might actually get excluded from colleges and job opportunities because of such a diagnosis (e.g. they may not be able to be a doctor or police officer).
I have worked hard on educating myself, our family and my son so we will all understand what an ASSETT Asperger’s Syndrome can be, and I truly believe my boy will do great things with his life because of his ASD. I hope the MEDIA will assist us parents in this journey and not make our efforts harder by negative portrayal of Aspies for entertainment’s sake. If we don’t encourage these kids and bring out the genius hiding inside them, we might just miss out on the next generation of scientists, engineers, inventors and the cure for cancer!
Good job, so far, NBC! Please keep it up!
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