Speaker 1: 0:00

I want apple juice. Lucas wants apple juice. I know I heard him say that. Can I have apple juice? Yeah, you can have apple juice. Can I have soda? Yes, you can have soda. Can I press that button? No, you can't press that button. Why? Because that's going to play the theme song. I'm not ready to start the pot.

Speaker 1: 0:30

Hi Pod, I am Dad. He's not just Hi Dad, he's my dad, james Gutman. Folks, it's James Gutman, it's Hi Pod, I'm Dad. Welcome back to another edition of the podcast. It is january 17th, it is 2025. What, huh? Welcome back.

Speaker 1: 0:53

I appreciate you guys finding me on any streaming service, wherever they stream podcasts, you'll find this podcast like subscribe, tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell anybody. I appreciate that as well. Highpodomdadcom all the archives. You know I've been doing this since 2019 a highpodomdad. But I've actually been doing audios and things like this since 2004 when I've been doing it for pro wrestling. I started writing in 2002 about wrestling and I I did these podcasts, I did these audio updates and it becomes almost like like cathartic. You know, like you get to come out here and just talk, talk to an invisible person has no choice but to listen to what you say. I've been doing this for so long and it's always been such a good feeling. It's such a natural feeling to come out here and get to talk about things. But nothing has ever been as satisfying as a as a as a person for me is doing this, doing these podcasts here on HiPod.

Speaker 1: 1:46

I'm dad, getting a chance to talk about, you know, my family, and getting a chance to talk about my son, lucas, who is nonverbal. He has autism. He's not like a lot of the people that you see on TV who are represented, who have autism or are nonverbal. He's a completely unique person. You know, and I've talked about this before. It's not just when I say he's unlike people who have autism that you see on TV. I'm not just talking about high functioning, I'm not talking about the good doctor and things like that, even nonverbal characters.

Speaker 1: 2:14

There was a show called Speechless that was about a kid who was nonverbal, who used a device and he was in a wheelchair and that character was not like my son. That character was in many ways. His receptive language was fantastic, he understood things, he knew what a lot of stuff was and he was able to kind of converse. His biggest hold off was that he couldn't use verbal language. My son is not like that. My son has life skills that he can't do. He's physically able to, he can move his body in certain ways, and we just have to get him to understand things. His receptive language isn't as great. So Lucas is different than anyone else I've met, and what this blog and this podcast has given me the opportunity to do is to share that with people and explain things to people.

Speaker 1: 2:56

But now here I am right. I've been doing HiBlogI'mDadcom Monday, wednesday, plug plug since February of 2017. So I've been doing this for eight years now. At this point, my son is 13. He was five and I've watched my journey with him and the places we've gone and the things that we've done together through the years just kind of like learning and understanding and coming to grips with an autism diagnosis that you're still kind of wrapping your head around. And if you go back, man, you know this blog began in 2017. I was almost like five, six years old, so you got to remember this is early on. So sometimes now I tell these stories about autism acceptance. I tell these stories about you know, really accepting and understanding and appreciating who my son is. I mean, the big thing is autism appreciation and learning who he is and what he can do. And I talk a lot about the time period that that happened and it was around five or six years old, which is when I really began the blog.

Speaker 1: 3:56

The blog has given me that opportunity to be able to share him with people and to not only tell stories about him but to appreciate him as I'm writing about him, which is where the autism appreciation kind of comes in. There have been days where I will write about my son and I will be done at the computer and I'll get up and all I wanna do is hug that kid. I'm like you are a great kid, you know, and we all like we're all parents. I know a lot of people listening to this special needs parents. People have children similar to Lucas, right Like we love our kids. But when you really sit and think about it, what your kid does, the place you know they have in your life, the things that they do for you, how they make you feel things like that, when you really give it thought, those make you appreciate your kids and for years I've learned to appreciate my son and that's one of the things that being able to look back now, years later, at the blog, I can notice Not only do I notice that, but I've talked before about how he's changed often right Like in life.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Going back to the blog, you know, in past shows I've talked about going back to the blog and seeing that things that he did yesterday he doesn't do anymore. Like Lucas doesn't run away. When he was little he would run away and I have blogs about being afraid of him running away. I had one called a running fear and it was about, you know, all he wanted to do was run. I would bring him to schoolyards and just take his shoes off or go and the schoolyards and just take his shoes off or go and he would just run. And it was so cute, he was so into it and he loved it. He'd laugh and run away. He couldn't believe I was letting him go. I was just like, just go, I trust you, hoping there's no hole in the fence. Right, that was the name of my memoir hoping there's no hole in the fence. And we loved it and we didn't. It doesn't do that anymore, but that's something I wrote about in the blog.

Speaker 1: 5:33

But also by going through the old blogs, not only do I see that. But I also see my own behavior and my own take on things and themes. That continued on when I wrote the blog back then and one of them was pity. I was so big on not wanting to be pitied and I still I don't want to be pity now. Obviously I've never been. I'm the kind of guy that's never. I don't like that. I don't know. I know it comes off a little like you know, macho Goomba, hey, hey, no, don't pity me, it's not like that. I know that. I mean, naturally nobody wants people to to look at them and be like, oh, I'm so sorry, but for me the thing that got me, especially with Lucas, was first of all number one like who are you? Don't pity me for my kid. My kid's great, I like my kid. So there's that. But then, on top of that initial idea, this is my kid, don't pity me for my kid. I love my kid. I got to know my kid and I'm gonna be honest with you, man, like I feel like a fraud sometimes when people give me that special needs parents pity.

Speaker 1: 6:33

And what am I talking about? I'm talking about things of you know somebody offering, hey, do you want to? You know, do you want to come to I don't know some meeting or whatever. Oh, I know it's hard. You have Lucas, I understand. Oh, yeah, it's hard. You know that kind of that easy out of not having to go to events and things I don't want to go to. That's helpful, right? So we do have that kind of pity. I don't mind that pity, but I'm talking overall Just the fact that I have Lucas as my son.

Speaker 1: 7:01

If I tell somebody a story about him, about trying to get him to say hi which is what we've been doing now like Lucas say hi, hi, hi, working on it with him. To me that's just something I'm doing in my life. It's a part of what we do, it's a part of my day, it's something that I love doing. I love working with him, I love teaching him things. But there's some people they hear that story and they're like, oh, because all they do is think about the fact that he can't talk. So if I'm trying to teach him to talk, it's not about the progress he's made, doesn't say anything, and that I hate, man. I hate that. So I didn't want to do that, right. But not only did I not want to do it, because I don't like the feeling that I get, but also I feel like a fraud, because, look, don't get me wrong Lucas has some difficult things that I have to deal with, just like I have a neurotypical 16-year-old daughter and she's got things I have to deal with.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Trust me on that. There's definitely every once in a while like you know, you don't have a 16 year old daughter unless you've threatened to punish them over the dumbest stuff, said things like if I come back down here and that jar of jelly is not back in the fridge, we're going to have problems, you're going to be punished. It's just a jar of jelly. Trust me, you go through it. When it comes to my son, there are challenges and we deal with them and we handle them, but overall he is fantastic, just like my daughter, right, like for all the challenges I deal with with her, she's my daughter. I love her Good personality traits. There's things about her that is just you know. I need her in my life. She's a part of who I am. He is the same exact thing. So there's things about Lucas that are just amazing.

Speaker 1: 8:40

But people don't naturally pity you for having neurotypical kids. They don't come over and, oh, it's sad you have a baby boy. No, no one does that. They do it when they hear you have a special needs child, they'll come over, oh sorry. And for me it drove me crazy, because my son is fantastic. There are things about him, because of autism, that make him amazing. He's loving, he's kind. He's not I mean, I've gone through this a million times he doesn't do things behind anyone's back. Lucas is Lucas, 100% knows who. He is Amazing. So I feel like a fraud letting people pity me for this kid who is, to me, the most unique boy I've ever met in my life. He's given me the opportunity to have this relationship with him and to learn from him and show him things and see the world through his eyes and all these beautiful things I try to write about.

Speaker 1: 9:28

So for me, the only thing I could do is write about it and tell people and be able to explain it me. The only thing I could do is write about it and tell people and be able to explain it. It's not an easy thing to explain to somebody in person. They don't get it. You have a limited amount of time writing, doing this podcast. It allows me to just tell you and you could shut it off, but ultimately you have to finish it. You know what I mean. You can't cut me off and it just stops right there. It just goes. It's there, it's out there. This is who my boy is. This is why I'm lucky to have him in my life, and this is everything I do. It means the world to me.

Speaker 1: 10:03

So, yeah, my goal I love and appreciate my son with autism and my goal is to get the rest of the world to do that too. So that's what autism appreciation is and that's all we want. Don't pity us, just appreciate this kid. And if you don't know why, I'll tell you Like, subscribe, like that. It ties back in the end, right back to the like and subscribe. So I appreciate it. Guys, thank you for liking, subscribing, listening, sharing, telling people about it. Go on to HiBlogI'mDadcom following me on social media. Hi, james Gutman. H-i, james Gutman, thank you. That does it for me. I'll be back Monday with a new blog, wednesday with a new blog, hopefully, nextiday with a new podcast. Okay, next friday with a new podcast. Until then, james gutman, be well, bye, bye, I'm done. I'll see you next time.