Thank you for writing this. Today my house is full of TikTok. Please say 'ask them to wear headphones'. I do, but they won't. They lose them, break them, run out of battery.
Unlike the people who appear on TikTok. The screamers.
So. Much. Screaming. YouTube Shorts over here. Absolute shock over the most mundane things. Headphones exist in theory, not in practice. Every discovery treated like a plot twist.
Thank you for taking the time to write this. I feel every part of it. The number of people who arrive carrying a depression label, only to discover it’s autistic burnout from an environment that won’t bend, is staggering. And heartbreaking. Especially when accommodations get treated like theoretical kindness instead of practical design.
What you describe with your kids rings so true. Knowing it’s okay to unplug at home, but still feeling the gravitational pull of relevance, group chats, and visibility elsewhere. That pressure is real, and it costs so much more than people acknowledge.
I still have the benefit of age with mine, 10 and 12, so we can restrict certain parts of performative culture while also naming the systems underneath it, especially consumerism. Not as a lecture, but as context. Being able to say, “This pressure isn’t accidental. Someone benefits from it,” and then limit exposure where we can feels like a real gift, even knowing that window won’t stay open forever.
I really appreciate how you named modeling rather than convincing. I think that’s all we really get to do. Live at a pace that keeps us intact and let them see it’s possible, even if they don’t choose it right away. And yes, young adults are very good at believing they’re the exception to forces we’ve already been flattened by. Still, the fact that they understand themselves earlier than many of us did gives me hope too.
Big sigh back. And gratitude for the work you’re doing, quietly and persistently, where it actually matters.
Thank you for writing this. Today my house is full of TikTok. Please say 'ask them to wear headphones'. I do, but they won't. They lose them, break them, run out of battery.
Unlike the people who appear on TikTok. The screamers.
So. Much. Screaming. YouTube Shorts over here. Absolute shock over the most mundane things. Headphones exist in theory, not in practice. Every discovery treated like a plot twist.
Thank you for taking the time to write this. I feel every part of it. The number of people who arrive carrying a depression label, only to discover it’s autistic burnout from an environment that won’t bend, is staggering. And heartbreaking. Especially when accommodations get treated like theoretical kindness instead of practical design.
What you describe with your kids rings so true. Knowing it’s okay to unplug at home, but still feeling the gravitational pull of relevance, group chats, and visibility elsewhere. That pressure is real, and it costs so much more than people acknowledge.
I still have the benefit of age with mine, 10 and 12, so we can restrict certain parts of performative culture while also naming the systems underneath it, especially consumerism. Not as a lecture, but as context. Being able to say, “This pressure isn’t accidental. Someone benefits from it,” and then limit exposure where we can feels like a real gift, even knowing that window won’t stay open forever.
I really appreciate how you named modeling rather than convincing. I think that’s all we really get to do. Live at a pace that keeps us intact and let them see it’s possible, even if they don’t choose it right away. And yes, young adults are very good at believing they’re the exception to forces we’ve already been flattened by. Still, the fact that they understand themselves earlier than many of us did gives me hope too.
Big sigh back. And gratitude for the work you’re doing, quietly and persistently, where it actually matters.