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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There's another thread in general topics about it being hard to make friends. I feel the same, but that it's even harder when you have a child with special needs. I have 3 kids, and my youngest has ASD. I am so stressed all the time, dealing with him. He generally has challenging behavior all the time. This makes it hard to enjoy going anywhere socially. Add to this that my husband is an antisocial ass, I feel doomed to not have friends, at least for the next 10 years or so.

Can anyone relate? [/quote]

Yes, many people find friends through the parents of their children's classmates- especially in the 0-grade 6 area. They frequently develop through play dates.  This doesn't happen if your child is not having play dates. Having a child with special needs impacts that.  IME, parent are more reluctant to have friendships- whether because they want to have playmates for their child or they just don't want to deal withs child that takes extra time.  You don't get invited into bookclubs, you don't get invited into Bunko groups, or BBQ's.  It was night and day with my second child- who was much more socially adept and well liked.

One way to combat this is to be the ones that host the bbqs, potlucks.  I find people will come to your house, but are reluctant to host.  Another is to volunteer heavily at your child's school and meet other parents that way.

[b]When my ASD/HFA child was in 1st grade, he invited all the boys in his class to his birthday party at our swimming club (indoors).  Everyone came and had a great time.  He was not invited to one birthday party that year, not one.  It was really sad, he was at the bottom of the social ladder.  There were about 18 boys in his class.[/b][/quote]

This was a similar experience to ours, only my son was in Kindergarten and it was all 26 kids from his K class in early November. Did not receive a birthday or playdate invite from any other child in that class all year. So I know how much it sucks! He is our oldest of 3 and we don't really have family type friends that we've made since his preschool years. [/quote]

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