Question: How do you feel about parents/guardians that use a known disability to make excuses for their child when their child does NOT have said disability.

So I realize this is a touchy subject. Let me give a little background as to why I am asking.

I work with young children/adults with social, mental and or physical handicaps that prevent them from functioning in day to day life. I absolutely LOVE what I do!

Recently (3 years if you can call that recent) I moved next door to a family with 6 kids. (I will reference them as The Family.)They claimed all of their children had autism and I never batted an eye. But over the years we have interacted a ton, become close, their kids play with mine and its a general good relationship. However every time one of their children do something wrong, whether it be cussing out an adult for walking out into their own backyard and the family's dogs starting to bark, violently attacking another child for playing with a toy or their own toy that the child wanted, the family's children tearing down multiple fences, or just general bad behavior the parents always used the excuse "oh well my children are autistic" and left it at that.

About a week ago though we were talking about it cause the mother was frustrated with all of the bad behavior and she openly admitted to me that not one of her children were autistic! Honestly I had already suspected this but it still floored me that someone would claim their child was impaired in such a way when they were not.

I personally find this to be deplorable behavior and find it difficult now to associate with the family.

Let me know how you feel, any stories, or just a comment down below.

Thanks!