James Guttman: 0:14

Hi Pod, I am Dad. He's not just Hi Dad, he's my dad, james Gutman. Folks, it's james gutman, it's high pot, I'm dad. Welcome back to another edition of the podcast. It is friday, we are we're at the beginning of march and it is so crazy that I almost said we're closing out february, because I have no idea what day it is, which I know it's friday, but when it comes to dates we get a little messed up. We're marching in like a lion, getting out like a lamb. All that good stuff.

James Guttman: 0:47

Thank you for choosing HiPod on Dad to spend your Friday, at least the next few minutes. I want to thank you guys so much for checking it out Whether you found me anywhere. We're on all the streaming services obligatory. Get that out of the way. Hipodondadcom, all the archives going back years and years and years been doing this for a very long time. You guys have really been a huge part of that, so thank you.

James Guttman: 1:08

This has been a very busy week, so might not be the longest show in the world, got a lot coming up and I will tell you this. I'll tell you now, I'll tell you at the end, I'll tell you all throughout. Do me a favor, come back to highblogomdadcom on monday big announcement, big news going forward. So Monday, monday is the date. It is the. It is the date that, yeah, just be here on Monday, I'll tell you all about it. But yeah, in general though, I write blogs every Monday, every Wednesday, hi blog, I'm dadcom and, on that level, monday is always a big day for me.

James Guttman: 1:43

I love getting to write about my son you might hear in the background Lucas, as you guys know, nonverbal. He's on the autism spectrum. He's also one of the most unique people I've ever known and one of the most positive ways. Lucas is his own person and a lot of the things that I write about when I write about Lucas is about autism and how it affects him. And years ago, like before doing this podcast, before doing the blog, before having him, I would think if somebody told me that, I would have a very different view of what their story was. If somebody said, oh, my son is nonverbal, he has autism, he's very unique, my brain would go in all different directions. I would think you know they're trying to be optimistic. You know, special Before I had a quote-unquote special needs kid.

James Guttman: 2:34

I looked at the term special the way I think a lot of people did Like, oh, this is kind of trying to put a smile on. Push on through, what are you going to do? And I got to tell you one of the true blessings that I've had in life is getting to write about him and share my experience with Lucas with the world. And that's on top of another blessing, which is getting to experience Lucas myself. I never would have guessed that this is what having a boy like him would mean to my life. There's difficulties, yeah, there's difficulties, with raising any kids. Any parenting is going to have difficulties. So that's right there. And on top of it, too, my son has life skills that we work on. We just had a meeting with his school today talking about some of the goals that you have, and a lot of the things that I'm still working on with him are things that other parents have long finished. You know all different things, whether it's, you know, brushing his hair, brushing his teeth, tying his shoes, things like that all still on the agenda. That's there, right, so you got it. If that's what you think the hard part is, you know, oh, it's poor dad, all right, cool, cool, poor dad doing it.

James Guttman: 3:47

But here's the thing. First of all, when people outside of my home envision raising a child like my son, they picture just a completely fabricated kid in their mind. Right, like what would I do if I had a kid like that? And they imagine a kid. That's what I used to do. I know this before I had Lucas. I would think that what would I do in that situation? I didn't know Lucas, I just knew this. You knew this caricature, this idea of what it would mean to have a special needs kid. So I experienced in my brain all the heartache and all the difficulties it's. But because I'm making up the scenario, I don't have that bond with that imaginary person. So you don't really envision that. You don't understand it.

James Guttman: 4:26

I love my son. I'll do anything for him because he's like the one person you'll meet who doesn't ask anything of you. You know, like he asked maybe for a cookie or like pirate booty or something to eat, but he's not like I don't know, lucas doesn't. Lucas is straightforward. There's no manipulation with him. He doesn't lie, he doesn't talk. Smack Lucas. If Lucas loves you, lucas loves you. If Lucas says yes to something, if he wants something, he wants it. He doesn't do it because he's trying to make you feel better. I just did that for you. It's not he's. That's not him man. He doesn't have that. He that, he's not arrogant, he's got no ego. All these beautiful things are all a part of who he is, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to write about that and share that and tell people about that, and that's what I did this past week, too.

James Guttman: 5:13

I talked about the parenting fears that vanished as my nonverbal son grew up, and a big part of that is everything I'm talking about here is the autism appreciation which has always been the idea that my son is a great person in many ways because of autism, not despite it, which I think, is this misconception that so many people have about how that works. I mean, don't get me wrong, like I have to always put on a little add-on here that in no way would I not want my son to be able to speak. Right, if Lucas woke up tomorrow and was like good morning Papa, it would be, we'd have a party, that'd be it. I'd just be like woo and I'd be so excited. Why? Because it would make his life easier. It would make life easier for me, obviously, obviously being able to understand it, but him too, being able to go through life and that worry that's on my shoulder of one day I'm going to be dead man.

James Guttman: 6:08

He doesn't talk. Are people going to know? You know all that's gone. So that, of course, as a parent, why wouldn't I want that but need it? When he was little, I thought I needed it. When he gets two, three, and people are like I might not talk, you're like are you kidding me? It was major. But now I want it. Now I want him to do everything. I want him to fly an airplane. I want him to run for public office. I want him to do everything. I don't need him to do anything. He doesn't need to become a doctor. He doesn't need to, you know, win an Academy Award. He just needs to be him. And he's really, honestly, through the personality that he has and through the way he sees the world, one of the sweetest, most genuine people I've ever known. Now, is this everybody with autism? I don't know. I haven't met everybody with autism. I will tell you this, though A lot of the people I've met who have autism are very similar in that respect, you know, and I've met some kids.

James Guttman: 7:09

He goes to a school and I've gone to. I went to a barbecue once and I'm sitting there at the school and this kid kicked me in the leg. This little boy, right, he was tiny, my son was a couple years younger and everyone was like, oh my God, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, everyone's like all the teachers and the aides and I just kind of like looked at him and he looks up at me. He's a big smile on his face. I'm like you kick me and he laughed and I laughed. Not great, you don't want to kick people. It's not a good thing to do. But there's a purity to it, the idea that he wanted to do it. So he did for me. He didn't do it in order to intimidate me. Hey, you better, you better throw that fight there, rocco. None of that stuff. It was just just sitting around. The kid was just like kick his leg, he just did it.

James Guttman: 7:49

Maybe it's me, Maybe I'm weird, maybe I find these things to be no-transcript ground and go to sleep. You see, he's bored. He's going to sit on the floor. I want to do that. He gets excited about a show that he wants to watch. He'll jump up and down clapping and screaming with excitement. I don't do that for anything. It's like a Toyota commercial. He is so excited about all these things and I'm so inspired by it, and that's the whole idea of this blog and the writing that I do and the things that I do autism appreciation, what it means, just across the board. So that's been a great experience. Thank you, guys, for taking the time to always read what I write. Thank you for taking the time to check out this podcast.

James Guttman: 8:46

I'm back on HiBlogI'mDad every Monday, every Wednesday, right? But again, I told you at the beginning I'm going to do it at the end. Monday go to the blog. Hiblogi'mdad Instagram. You can follow me. Hijamesgutman, hijamesgutman big things on the horizon, but yeah, monday, monday, monday, go on highblogomdadcom. Check it out. I promise you will not be disappointed. A lot of big stuff on the way. Join me here. Hi Pod I'm Dad. Next Friday brand new podcast. Until then, james Gutman saying be well, bye, pod, I'm Dad. Thank you.