The Autism Mom's Survival Guide to Mother's Day (And the Burnout That Comes With It)

Every parenting site has a Mother's Day gift guide. Candles, robes, personalized jewelry, a brunch reservation. The tributes are sweet, the gifts are thoughtful, and none of them were written for you. Not for the mom who spent the week before Sunday prepping for a sensory-sensitive child who won't understand why the day is different. Not for the mom who woke up on Mother's Day already depleted from a school year that never quite stopped. Not for the mom who loves her child completely and also carries a weight that doesn't fit on a greeting card. This article was written for you. It covers five things: the question you're probably afraid to ask out loud about your own life, the setup in the week before Mother's Day that actually determines how the day goes, how to stay out of survival mode on the day itself, what burnout recovery actually looks like beyond Mother's Day, and a section written specifically for partners — including the five things that consistently miss the mark and the five that actually land. All five sections are below. The first one starts with the most honest question in autism parenting.