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Help, My Kid is Autistic
11 Plays3 years ago
Salman soliloquizes on Life Changing Moments, Breast Cancer Awareness, and on Parenting a Neurodivergent Child
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Expat Brad Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Hey guys, it's Alman Qureshi.
00:00:07
Speaker
You're listening to the Expat Brad Podcast.
00:00:10
Speaker
What's going on?
00:00:12
Speaker
Shout out to all the people who are doing some great stuff out there.
00:00:17
Speaker
That's such a vague shout out.
00:00:20
Speaker
I didn't think this one through.
00:00:21
Speaker
I sat there and went, I'd like to say something positive.
00:00:25
Speaker
And then I just became like a motivational speaker where, you know, you just you say something so vague that it sounds nice and you want to do it.
00:00:34
Speaker
But when you pause, you're just like, what what does that even mean?
Motivational Speeches and Personal Reflections
00:00:38
Speaker
Or like, you know, you could go up.
00:00:41
Speaker
And say stuff like, you know, when I was a kid, I had a tough life and I didn't know what I was going to be, who I was going to be.
00:00:52
Speaker
And then this incident, you got to like think of an incident, right?
00:00:55
Speaker
Just make up one.
00:00:57
Speaker
And you use that and you go, and then, you know, that's the day I realized what I had to do and then got on this path.
00:01:04
Speaker
where I work really hard, the whole Rocky spiel, and then boom, you're rich and successful.
00:01:10
Speaker
At least in front of the people, you pretend to do that, yeah?
00:01:13
Speaker
I don't know how to do that, man.
00:01:17
Speaker
I think when people are young, I don't know who these kids are.
00:01:21
Speaker
Who's realizing stuff when they're 10, 15 years old, right?
00:01:25
Speaker
I still don't know what I want to be.
00:01:27
Speaker
And I have to hear stories about someone having this moment in their life.
00:01:31
Speaker
And it's so clear.
00:01:32
Speaker
I don't know if it's just my memory.
00:01:34
Speaker
I think my voice is going because I've had like work nonstop, like just speaking for...
00:01:44
Speaker
like almost 10 days now, man, nonstop.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:48
Speaker
And I, and I'm still doing this, uh, today.
00:01:51
Speaker
I just thought, all right, let's give my voice one last push.
00:01:55
Speaker
And so if my voice completely trails off while I'm talking, it's, it's because of this.
00:02:00
Speaker
It's not because I've died.
00:02:01
Speaker
Hopefully it's not because of that.
00:02:03
Speaker
Um, in which case you wouldn't be listening to the episode.
00:02:05
Speaker
It's just my voice has died at some point.
00:02:07
Speaker
So I don't know how long this episode's
00:02:11
Speaker
I should probably edit this off of me clearing my throat.
00:02:15
Speaker
You remember back in the day?
00:02:17
Speaker
Well, I'm talking about back in the day.
00:02:19
Speaker
I'm talking about two years ago when even just clearing your throat in front of people started sounding scary.
00:02:27
Speaker
And you didn't want people to think you had COVID.
00:02:29
Speaker
And I have a chronic cough, and I kept always having to apologize.
00:02:33
Speaker
It's not COVID.
00:02:36
Speaker
I swear to God, it's not COVID.
00:02:37
Speaker
I just have a regular cough and so on and so forth.
00:02:43
Speaker
Oh, wow, my brain's working overtime.
00:02:45
Speaker
Where was
Skepticism and Recurring Habits
00:02:46
Speaker
I?
00:02:46
Speaker
I was talking about motivational.
00:02:49
Speaker
Yeah, young people, right?
00:02:52
Speaker
Or even just my general memory is probably worse than other people's, I get it.
00:02:57
Speaker
But I still like, sometimes people remember this incident so well and they mark out every little detail.
00:03:04
Speaker
I think some of it is just made up, right?
00:03:06
Speaker
Isn't that what your brain does?
00:03:07
Speaker
It just makes up stuff when it doesn't know.
00:03:10
Speaker
It just fills in the colors from its own side.
00:03:13
Speaker
Like someone, you were wearing this navy suit that was well cut.
00:03:20
Speaker
And your hair looked perfect.
00:03:22
Speaker
And you had freshly shaved so your skin was like glistening.
00:03:27
Speaker
And then someone shows you this photo from that day.
00:03:32
Speaker
And you're just like, you look like you've worn your dad's suit.
00:03:36
Speaker
And it's...
00:03:38
Speaker
It's just a terrible photo.
00:03:40
Speaker
And you're like, that's not the same day.
00:03:42
Speaker
That couldn't be the same day.
00:03:43
Speaker
So your memory's destroyed.
00:03:44
Speaker
Anyway, people remember stuff.
00:03:47
Speaker
And then they go, that thing changed my mind.
00:03:50
Speaker
I don't think one incident really does it, right?
00:03:53
Speaker
Like how many times, how many times have I sat there and gone, you know, after overeating, just gone there, sat there and gone, never again.
00:04:06
Speaker
All right, this will never happen again.
00:04:09
Speaker
I don't care how good the food is.
00:04:11
Speaker
I don't care how hungry I am.
00:04:14
Speaker
Next time, I am going to stop and I'm not going to overeat so I don't put on weight and start losing the weight I've been talking about for a gazillion years now, right?
00:04:24
Speaker
You think that and then the next day, literally the next day.
00:04:29
Speaker
I've had dinners like that and I've had big breakfast followed up by it.
00:04:34
Speaker
Just going, no, no, no, never again.
00:04:37
Speaker
And so I don't know, like when people go, and after that incident, I was never the same.
00:04:45
Speaker
I seriously, I don't believe it.
00:04:47
Speaker
Like, I just think it's a bunch of times you keep going and then you have no choice left or you have some kind of like...
00:04:55
Speaker
heavier uh like support done like your parents basically beat the hell out of you and and then for like a few months and so they beat the thing out they beat the thing out of you right that's uh that's how i imagine it to be uh but i hope other than that you guys are having a great time a great week well it's the weekend technically not technically it is the weekend
00:05:20
Speaker
It is the weekend, and I hope you had a great weekend planned.
October Observations: Halloween and Awareness Campaigns
00:05:24
Speaker
I thought it was getting cooler out here in Dubai, and now suddenly it's like spiked up a little bit.
00:05:29
Speaker
It's better than before, and we're in October.
00:05:33
Speaker
You know what October means?
00:05:34
Speaker
It means Halloween.
00:05:36
Speaker
It means you're going to get a lot of companies who are tone-deaf about breast cancer, so they'll use the color pink in everything and do giveaways and make this like...
00:05:49
Speaker
fun month instead of like raising awareness about the actual reason.
00:05:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:57
Speaker
And I keep saying, oh my God, you know, this is such a bad habit.
00:06:01
Speaker
You probably caught it.
00:06:02
Speaker
I keep saying breast awareness instead of breast cancer awareness.
00:06:07
Speaker
I'm not trying to get people to be aware of breasts like, hey, hey, stop.
00:06:12
Speaker
Can you see those two things?
00:06:13
Speaker
Those are breasts.
00:06:15
Speaker
That would be an interesting month though, you know.
00:06:19
Speaker
A few of the countries would ban that out, right?
00:06:22
Speaker
Of course.
00:06:23
Speaker
And I think they'd be right to do it this time.
00:06:27
Speaker
Breast cancer awareness.
00:06:29
Speaker
That's not a laughing matter.
00:06:31
Speaker
Breast awareness would be a laughing matter.
00:06:33
Speaker
So, yeah, you've got that.
00:06:35
Speaker
You've got Halloween, so it's like pink and then orange.
00:06:38
Speaker
It's all these colors happening in my head.
00:06:41
Speaker
And the football World Cup, guys.
00:06:44
Speaker
I'm super excited
World Cup Excitement and Controversies
00:06:45
Speaker
about it.
00:06:45
Speaker
I'm not a huge football fan, like I've said a few times.
00:06:50
Speaker
But the World Cup really gets me.
00:06:51
Speaker
I'm one of those people that true football fans hate.
00:06:55
Speaker
They go, oh my god, he doesn't know anything about these players or the game.
00:07:00
Speaker
And he's going to sit there and comment and suggest stuff and make judgments.
00:07:06
Speaker
And they hate it.
00:07:08
Speaker
And so I do it more.
00:07:10
Speaker
I love instigating them a little bit.
00:07:14
Speaker
So I'm just going to throw stuff out there.
00:07:17
Speaker
I think if they had not done that offside, and they're like, what do you mean offside?
00:07:24
Speaker
When the guy goes ahead before the ball does, and they're like, you mean offside?
00:07:29
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, yeah.
00:07:30
Speaker
Isn't it all the same?
00:07:32
Speaker
Just throw that kind of stuff out there.
00:07:34
Speaker
Really get them angry and pissy, okay?
00:07:37
Speaker
That's if you're not if you're one of my kind.
00:07:42
Speaker
But it's happening in Qatar and people are getting angry about it again.
00:07:46
Speaker
People online and some brands, I think it was Denmark's apparel supplier who's toned down the colors and claimed, you know, we're doing it because we stand against the atrocities that happen in Qatar, the human rights stuff.
00:07:59
Speaker
And in some ways, it's admirable.
00:08:03
Speaker
But in some ways, I'm also like, isn't aren't like around where you guys live, you guys slaughter whales like in huge numbers?
00:08:11
Speaker
Like, I don't know.
00:08:13
Speaker
Although in fairness, they're talking about human rights in Qatar.
00:08:16
Speaker
So I yeah, I don't know.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:19
Speaker
It's so judgmental.
00:08:20
Speaker
What do you do?
00:08:21
Speaker
If you look at America's record, that means you shouldn't be like doing anything with the U.S. Seriously.
00:08:26
Speaker
Like if you looked at it as a person, as a really old person throughout its history, you'd have to be like, okay, all right, man, you're a troubled figure.
00:08:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:38
Speaker
The U.K.
00:08:39
Speaker
too.
00:08:39
Speaker
Same shit, right?
00:08:40
Speaker
The queen's dead, but the stolen jewelry hasn't been returned.
00:08:44
Speaker
Just saying, just putting it out there.
00:08:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:48
Speaker
And yeah, so I'm excited.
00:08:51
Speaker
I had plans with my friends to go down to Qatar.
00:08:54
Speaker
And then they had this really strict way of getting tickets.
00:08:57
Speaker
It was all sold out.
00:08:59
Speaker
And you could only bid for it.
00:09:00
Speaker
Blah, blah, blah.
00:09:01
Speaker
And you can't just fly into the country if you don't have stadium tickets.
00:09:06
Speaker
So you can't visit the country and watch it at a restaurant, a bar, just hang about the stadium or outside.
00:09:15
Speaker
They apparently haven't done it.
00:09:16
Speaker
So I was planning to drive through.
00:09:17
Speaker
It would have been such a kick-ass journey.
00:09:19
Speaker
But here we are.
00:09:21
Speaker
I'm going to have to watch it on television at home.
00:09:23
Speaker
And it's crazy that Qatar wouldn't use this to open tourism up.
00:09:28
Speaker
So on a serious note, I think that would mean...
Impact of the World Cup on Dubai Tourism
00:09:31
Speaker
a lot of people come to Dubai and kind of go back and forth or use it as a second as part of their holiday because if you're in the area, why wouldn't you come and see, why wouldn't you come and see like this country, right?
00:09:45
Speaker
You're right next door.
00:09:46
Speaker
It's the chance you've flown across the world.
00:09:48
Speaker
You'd probably do Dubai, which means great for Dubai's economy and, uh,
00:09:55
Speaker
And for their hotels and whatnot.
00:09:57
Speaker
But it also means it's going to get busy in here.
00:10:01
Speaker
I might be cranky about that.
00:10:02
Speaker
You'll find out in the following episodes how cranky I get about it.
00:10:06
Speaker
If it increases traffic and stuff, I get really annoyed, man.
00:10:10
Speaker
But then I don't have an 8 to 5.
00:10:11
Speaker
So who knows?
00:10:12
Speaker
Who knows?
00:10:12
Speaker
Right?
00:10:14
Speaker
Man, I gotta talk, like, you know, personal note as well.
00:10:17
Speaker
There's something I'm really happy about, but you guys might not know the background for
Personal Journey with Autism Diagnosis
00:10:22
Speaker
it.
00:10:22
Speaker
You guys know I have a wife and a kid.
00:10:25
Speaker
My kid's turning four, end of November.
00:10:27
Speaker
And one of the things I haven't talked publicly really about is that my son was diagnosed with autism, all right?
00:10:38
Speaker
And so the thing is when you find out as a parent, you know, when you start seeing the signs, you start worrying about it and you start kind of going into denial or you're just confused.
00:10:54
Speaker
And people give you advice either way.
00:10:56
Speaker
They're like, get some screening done, but I think it's fine.
00:10:59
Speaker
My kid spoke late and so on and so forth.
00:11:02
Speaker
They'll tell you stuff like that.
00:11:05
Speaker
And we kind of held on for a little bit because we were like, okay, it was the lockdown.
00:11:11
Speaker
He was on the iPad quite a bit.
00:11:13
Speaker
It slowed down his growth or something.
00:11:15
Speaker
Let's just wait it out.
00:11:16
Speaker
He's not speaking enough.
00:11:18
Speaker
But then we saw a couple more signs and we went, okay, all right, let's get our kid screened.
00:11:24
Speaker
It's not a severe thing and I think for a lot of people, severe cases are, you know, you hear stories, it's very difficult and my heart goes out to those parents.
00:11:34
Speaker
But one of the things that's helping us right now, I think at least, is that everyone kind of started talking to us about early intervention.
00:11:44
Speaker
And we really took it to heart and we started working on it.
00:11:48
Speaker
So it means we do spend a lot of money on his therapy.
00:11:53
Speaker
And now he's going to nursery.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:54
Speaker
In three months, he's going to join other kids, go to nursery and have that experience.
00:11:59
Speaker
And I'm really like super proud.
00:12:01
Speaker
He had his orientation day and on the day he went in and he played around and he sat next to a kid and he helped him with this alphabet puzzle.
00:12:11
Speaker
You know, when you put the letters through a block and
00:12:13
Speaker
and push it through.
00:12:14
Speaker
So that was really encouraging.
00:12:17
Speaker
And I think while, look, firstly, it can be quite painful, all right?
00:12:23
Speaker
As a parent, you're just like, you're just hoping in somewhere in the back of your head that he'll snap out of this or a couple of therapy sessions will fix him up or something.
00:12:33
Speaker
And then luckily I had I was very lucky to have open chats.
00:12:38
Speaker
I think my wife and I were very mature about having seen it in in our circles with not not like a lot of people, but enough to kind of go, OK, you know, you got to recognize it for what it is.
00:12:52
Speaker
And so a lot of friends and family came forth and said, okay, talk to this person, talk to that.
00:12:57
Speaker
So we really got a lot of help.
00:13:00
Speaker
And even though that doesn't make it easier emotionally, it really helped us make the correct choices and we push forward with stuff.
00:13:09
Speaker
I get hearing all these stories all the time from other people where the parents, one of the parents, particularly the dads at times, who are kind of like in denial about it.
00:13:23
Speaker
And they think, no, he's fine.
00:13:25
Speaker
He, she is fine.
00:13:29
Speaker
They just, you know, they got their own shit going and they'll go to school and they'll be fine.
00:13:33
Speaker
And I feel really bad for those kids because one of the things, man, this is like a whole serious topic I'm going into unlike my other stuff, yeah?
00:13:43
Speaker
One of the things that really is something you can't take back is the opportunity to do early intervention, okay?
00:13:56
Speaker
The quicker you get into it, the quicker you provide support to your child, the better.
00:14:00
Speaker
All right.
00:14:01
Speaker
When there's a certain age and when they cross that, it becomes harder.
00:14:06
Speaker
I've heard horror stories after that.
00:14:08
Speaker
Right.
00:14:08
Speaker
Some kids will have lost any opportunity to become not verbal from nonverbal to verbal.
00:14:16
Speaker
A lot of times because they haven't been supported, they don't know how to communicate.
00:14:20
Speaker
And so they get really violent.
00:14:23
Speaker
They'll do they'll get bad habits.
00:14:25
Speaker
They might do stuff like to the sofa or something out of frustration.
00:14:30
Speaker
And, you know, it just becomes more and more difficult for that kid.
00:14:33
Speaker
So you got to parents, you got to put your ego aside and.
00:14:38
Speaker
and you see any signs, you reach out for help.
00:14:42
Speaker
Okay?
00:14:42
Speaker
And whether you like it or not, you trust the person assessing.
00:14:48
Speaker
Hey, do 10 if you can afford it, but they're expensive.
00:14:51
Speaker
All right?
00:14:52
Speaker
So I'll tell you that much.
00:14:53
Speaker
So reach out to friends who can kind of maybe give you a free option, but they have experience in this stuff.
00:14:59
Speaker
All right?
00:15:00
Speaker
Don't
00:15:01
Speaker
Don't try crazy stuff.
00:15:04
Speaker
Give them proper help.
00:15:06
Speaker
OK, just go out there and really just find out the answer and then accept it.
00:15:11
Speaker
It's not easy.
00:15:12
Speaker
And, you know, you kind of as a parent, for those of you who haven't been around special needs kids,
00:15:22
Speaker
It's a whole, and you may not have your own, but some of us might have seen it within our family or friend circle or whatever, right?
00:15:33
Speaker
Some sort of experience.
00:15:34
Speaker
But I gotta tell you as a parent, right?
00:15:37
Speaker
You have to recalibrate every single thing in your head about your expectations,
00:15:44
Speaker
about your relationship, not just with him, but with your spouse and everybody around, okay?
00:15:52
Speaker
Because people won't get it.
00:15:55
Speaker
Sometimes I say no to things because I got to spend time with my child.
00:15:59
Speaker
I want to be there during this early time.
00:16:02
Speaker
And so I cut down on a lot of social things.
00:16:04
Speaker
I do a lot of last minute cancellations,
00:16:08
Speaker
Because, you know, my life really does revolve around him as much as I can.
00:16:13
Speaker
Now, with the therapy, he's got into a good routine and, you know, it's helping.
00:16:21
Speaker
So my life's in better control as well.
00:16:24
Speaker
Before we did that.
00:16:25
Speaker
Right.
00:16:26
Speaker
This is another thing.
00:16:26
Speaker
This again, if you're if you know anyone, please pass this information on.
00:16:31
Speaker
We you're not equipped already.
00:16:33
Speaker
Parenting is hard.
00:16:34
Speaker
All right.
00:16:35
Speaker
Trying to raise a kid is not easy.
00:16:39
Speaker
On top of that, these are extra challenges.
00:16:41
Speaker
So if you just break it down to like math or like logic, this is this is the whole thing.
00:16:46
Speaker
So as it is, raising a child is hard.
00:16:48
Speaker
Raising a kid who needs a bit more attention or special or a different kind of attention, we're not equipped for it.
00:16:56
Speaker
No one is born knowing how to deal with it.
00:16:59
Speaker
And with most kids,
00:17:01
Speaker
you'll be able to kind of understand and do it and get it.
00:17:05
Speaker
It's harder when they have something.
00:17:09
Speaker
I'm specifically, obviously, speaking to my experience with autism, but I've seen it in the family again, and each thing has its own impact.
00:17:21
Speaker
What's my point, man?
00:17:22
Speaker
My point is, you don't know how to deal with it, and if you don't, you're gonna ruin that child further, all right?
00:17:29
Speaker
So if you don't support the kid at this time, you are messing them up, all right?
00:17:36
Speaker
So that's on you, so stop being selfish,
00:17:38
Speaker
Put your ego aside.
00:17:39
Speaker
Put your fears aside.
00:17:40
Speaker
Put your grief aside.
00:17:42
Speaker
You got to go and act on what needs to be done.
00:17:47
Speaker
All right.
00:17:47
Speaker
And most therapists will give you a nice line.
00:17:49
Speaker
And, you know, once you get into it, the beginning is hard again because you're like, oh, my God, I got to do this.
00:17:55
Speaker
And will he, she ever be fixed or something?
00:18:00
Speaker
You learn to just take every day at a time and every win together.
00:18:04
Speaker
You celebrate really big.
00:18:07
Speaker
That's just one of those things you do as a parent.
00:18:11
Speaker
And there are things in the beginning of this year, January, I was like, I don't know if he's ever going to do any of that.
00:18:19
Speaker
But he's been calling, and it's amazing.
00:18:22
Speaker
He's been calling me daddy.
00:18:23
Speaker
He's been calling my wife mommy.
00:18:26
Speaker
And it just feels great.
00:18:28
Speaker
Okay?
00:18:30
Speaker
So you see improvements and you measure them and you go, yes, this is working.
00:18:36
Speaker
And you want to give your kid the best life possible.
00:18:39
Speaker
Right.
00:18:39
Speaker
Every parent wants to do that, but you can't do it if you stick around and mope and be in denial.
00:18:45
Speaker
I guess this is part of growing up and just part of being mature.
00:18:51
Speaker
That's one aspect.
00:18:53
Speaker
And then obviously with your spouse, these are difficult times.
00:18:55
Speaker
You got to be there for each other because both of you will have your down times.
00:19:00
Speaker
No matter how well things are going, no matter how quickly your child might be learning stuff,
00:19:08
Speaker
there'll be times when you'll have fears, right?
00:19:10
Speaker
Like, will the world be kind to your child?
00:19:15
Speaker
I mean, a lot of those parental fears are normal parental fears.
00:19:20
Speaker
They might be heightened a little bit.
00:19:22
Speaker
but they'll bring any parent down, right?
00:19:24
Speaker
Like even regular kid parents, I guess, if I wanna say that, or they'll have their down times in parenting.
00:19:33
Speaker
So you have to be there for your spouse and don't be afraid to reach out to your spouse as well and go, hey, I'm having a bad day.
00:19:43
Speaker
I feel sad about this.
00:19:46
Speaker
Give me your shoulder to cry on.
00:19:47
Speaker
So it's gonna be like that and you gotta learn to be just open about it, okay?
00:19:53
Speaker
This is one of the reasons I'm – the only reason I've never spoken about her before for everybody who follows my podcast or just follows me in general.
Advocacy and Support for Autism
00:20:05
Speaker
I just feel – I was always like, do I want to –
00:20:09
Speaker
put his thing public.
00:20:11
Speaker
It's his life, it's his thing to deal with and put it out there.
00:20:16
Speaker
I didn't know, I just kind of grappled with it.
00:20:20
Speaker
Generally with kids, you're like, how much do you put out their stuff into the world?
00:20:23
Speaker
How much do you want to reveal?
00:20:25
Speaker
What may be his pride?
00:20:26
Speaker
What may be something they want to keep private?
00:20:29
Speaker
I don't know, right?
00:20:30
Speaker
But I also felt I was really moved and really this is an appeal to people when I heard cases of parents who were just like, who knew or at least want to spouse and they're struggling because they're partners in doing it.
00:20:46
Speaker
And that's going to end badly for the child.
00:20:51
Speaker
And that just propelled me to like speak up, man.
00:20:54
Speaker
I think if you notice this in someone else's kid, I know social norms are like, it's hard to talk about it and stuff and maybe they'll get offended, but you'd still be doing the right thing by saying, hey, I think the kid needs to be screened.
00:21:14
Speaker
Okay, this is a good time.
00:21:16
Speaker
You handle it nicely.
00:21:17
Speaker
You open it up and say, look, however you want to put it,
00:21:22
Speaker
But I think it's one of those moments where you gotta go, I gotta speak up and hope to get there in time, all right?
00:21:31
Speaker
Time is very essential in this thing.
00:21:34
Speaker
So, yeah, once you kind of go, all right, we're doing this and we were very lucky.
00:21:46
Speaker
This thing can be really expensive, by the way, okay?
00:21:50
Speaker
Like autistic kids really drain your bank account.
00:21:53
Speaker
All right.
00:21:53
Speaker
I'm I'm I'm signing up for a lot more gigs than I than I would like to at my age because I was just like, all right, got to.
00:22:04
Speaker
pay for this stuff.
00:22:06
Speaker
Therapy ain't cheap.
00:22:08
Speaker
And we're very lucky.
00:22:09
Speaker
We found a really good therapist and a good, you know, because we started speaking out, I ran into someone at one of the theaters where I perform and his son, I could recognize it at this point.
00:22:24
Speaker
So I was like, and he came out, he actually just said it.
00:22:27
Speaker
My kid's autistic.
00:22:28
Speaker
Before I even asked
00:22:30
Speaker
Just straight up.
00:22:32
Speaker
And I said, hey, my kid's autistic.
00:22:34
Speaker
I just found out.
00:22:35
Speaker
And so he connected me with their good therapist.
00:22:38
Speaker
And, you know, that has really helped that ease a lot of like anxiety about like, where do I look?
00:22:45
Speaker
Where do what?
00:22:46
Speaker
Who do I find?
00:22:47
Speaker
So, you know, that's the power of reaching out to people and going, you know, just just just help.
00:22:56
Speaker
It's just screaming help.
00:22:58
Speaker
You're on an island and it might feel lonely and you might think I'll never escape from this, but you still got to put that big help sign out, rescue me, SOS kind of thing in whatever way you can.
00:23:12
Speaker
You got to do it.
00:23:12
Speaker
Don't sit on the island thinking, all right, well, this is it.
00:23:16
Speaker
Okay, so I...
00:23:18
Speaker
I really I just wanted to be open about this for that reason.
00:23:21
Speaker
I think we need to this thing about early intervention really hit me hard.
00:23:26
Speaker
And that's why I'm just advocating it.
00:23:29
Speaker
All right.
00:23:30
Speaker
And this is one of those things.
00:23:32
Speaker
No matter who you are in this role with the child, you can't sit on the sidelines, stand in the sidelines and watch this train wreck happen.
00:23:42
Speaker
You got to at least suggest it.
00:23:45
Speaker
And maybe they'll be angry at that point.
00:23:47
Speaker
But maybe they'll listen eventually.
00:23:49
Speaker
Okay?
00:23:50
Speaker
You'll have done your bit.
00:23:51
Speaker
All right.
Conclusion and Listener Support Information
00:23:52
Speaker
Cool.
00:23:52
Speaker
Guys, I normally try to keep it light.
00:23:55
Speaker
And, you know, this isn't depressing.
00:23:59
Speaker
I personally do have, I love my kid.
00:24:03
Speaker
I wouldn't change him for the world.
00:24:04
Speaker
And I feel very lucky he's in my life.
00:24:07
Speaker
And he's fun.
00:24:07
Speaker
And I learn a lot from just parenting him.
00:24:10
Speaker
And it's, you know, it's a true joy.
00:24:12
Speaker
I've never regretted anything about parenting except for my holidays.
00:24:20
Speaker
And so, you know, yeah.
00:24:22
Speaker
Take it out.
00:24:23
Speaker
Tell people.
00:24:24
Speaker
Show some love.
00:24:25
Speaker
The world can be very cruel.
00:24:28
Speaker
A little bit of love and tenderness and softness won't kill you.
00:24:33
Speaker
Maybe.
00:24:33
Speaker
I don't know.
00:24:35
Speaker
But there's a better way to die than if it does.
00:24:37
Speaker
Okay?
00:24:39
Speaker
You guys take care.
00:24:40
Speaker
I'll catch you on the next episode.
00:24:41
Speaker
Thanks for listening.
00:24:42
Speaker
If there was something on this, if you need help,
00:24:44
Speaker
With anything I've said, please reach out to me on my Insta, at SalmanZQ, or just look up any other.
00:24:53
Speaker
I'm all over the internet on every platform that there is, I guess.
00:24:58
Speaker
Reach out anywhere you want, and I promise I'll talk to you about it, okay?
00:25:03
Speaker
So take care.
00:25:04
Speaker
Goodbye.
00:25:06
Speaker
Or as a dog would say, woof.