Storytime Part 2: Freelance Writing Gave Me Time For My Autistic Son

My son was diagnosed with Autism later than most children. Initially, his doctor diagnosed him with a speech delay because he consistently met all of his developmental milestones. He understood nonverbal communication and seemed to understand what was happening around him but didn’t talk much, if at all. If he did, he said lines he’d memorized from his favorite books or cartoons.

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On the advice of a kind nurse practitioner whose Spidey senses began to tingle as she played with him during a routine doctor’s visit, I scheduled a developmental evaluation and my son was diagnosed with Autism at five and a half years old. In Chicago, services for Autistic children begin at two years old. That meant he had missed out on three and a half years of therapy.?

Now, I wasn’t completely in the dark about the fact that my son was different. I had worked as a childcare aide caring for three and four-year-olds at a summer camp and spent a lot of time babysitting kids in my family, but I had agreed with the doctor. I had a pretty good idea of what my son’s deficits were, so I homeschooled him for kindergarten, hoping to help him build his skills and I found him a speech therapist.

Homeschooling as a single parent was much easier said than done. At the time, I was a retail supervisor, so I had to work with the store manager to create a schedule that would allow me to work evenings and weekends. I was also taking on small writing projects, but not making much money. It was hard, but I did it. By the time he enrolled in the first grade at the neighborhood public school, his skills were on par with any of his peers. But being in a noisy classroom with its bright lights and random sounds proved too much for the little guy and he began to freefall, losing many of the skills he had worked so hard to gain. After much testing, he was removed from the inclusive class and placed in one exclusively for kids with disabilities.?

Suddenly, I was being told that my son could not do the things I had taught him to do, like identifying shapes and colors and sight words, reading basic sentences, and basic addition, but I knew better. They were going to start him from scratch and focus on teaching him how to function in a school setting. The decision didn’t sit well with me.

Unable to pull him out of the school and not seeing many options, I said a prayer and launched my freelance writing business. I knew I could get my son back on track but I needed to free up time to work with him. If I could reduce my hours at my retail job we’d have time to review skills after school. I took a huge leap of faith and began promoting my content writing services in Facebook Groups. Before long I had learned how to build my personal brand and was writing blog posts and product descriptions for small businesses and editing fiction manuscripts for self-published authors. I worked with my son after school during the week and worked retail only on the weekends. My son bounced back fast and, before long, was given more challenging work at school.?

All of my freelance work was done remotely and on my own schedule, which gave me the free time I needed to help my son get through that rough patch. I loved my new lifestyle so much that I committed to going 100% remote, which I was able to do well before the pandemic. Being a freelance writer and editor has given me the freedom to drop off and pick my son up from school, attend his sporting events and support him in many other ways I could have never done if I had to work in person.?

Knowing how to write content for the Internet and build my personal brand improved my quality of life and allowed me to be there for my son in ways I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. It’s one of the reasons I’m passionate about teaching others how to build their personal brands and sharing what I’ve learned. I want to help others discover the kind of freedom I have and build better futures for themselves and their families. In this way, I can use my knowledge and experience to give back, pay it forward and make a positive impact.

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