February 7, 2025 • 15 mins
This episode explores the joys and challenges of parenting a child with autism, revealing personal stories of parenting regrets and the importance of acceptance. The discussion emphasizes the value of embracing children's unique traits and invites listeners to share their stories.
• The beauty of embracing a child’s unique personality
• Reflections on stimming behaviors and their significance
• Personal stories of parenting regrets
• Insights from parenting a neurotypical child alongside a child with autism
• The upcoming book sharing these experiences
Preorder James Guttman’s new book – “Hi World, I’m Dad: How Fathers Can Journey to Autism Awareness, Acceptance, and Appreciation”
Follow Us On Facebook and Follow James Guttman on Instagram.
Also, be sure to read the blog that started it all - Hi Blog! I'm Dad.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want apple juice.
Lucas wants apple juice.
I know I heard him say that.
Can I have apple juice?
Yeah, you can have apple juice.
Can I have soda?
Yes, you can have soda.
Can I press that button?
No, you can't press that button.
Why?
Because that's going to playthe theme song.
I'm not ready to start the pot.
(00:30):
Hi Pod, I am Dad.
He's not just Hi Dad, he's mydad, james Gutman, that's me,
james Gutman.
What's up, guys?
Guys, welcome back to anotheredition of high pod.
I'm dad.
Thank you for tuning in everyfriday on spotify and all all
(00:53):
that other good stuff.
Anyway, you found me.
Thank you like subscribe.
That's what they say.
So that's what I say.
So I appreciate it.
It's great doing this podcastfor you guys each and every week
, in all the archives onhypodomdadcom and, as you know
by now, hypodomdadcom theoffshoot of highblogomdadcom
every Monday, every Wednesday,writing about raising my kids,
(01:16):
writing about autismappreciation, the idea that my
son's personality because ofautism makes him special, not
despite autism.
I don't know.
I talk about that.
Every time I talk about this Ifeel like I'm reintroducing it
again, but every time I say itout loud it always gets me a
little bit, because it's kind oftrue.
A lot of the things that wecame up with, the tolerance and
(01:38):
the things that taught us toaccept people with autism,
always involve the idea of youknow, they're just like us, they
can do our things.
Look, this kid played footballand he has autism.
Look, this kid can do math,which then helps me, which makes
his autism great.
But you know what?
(01:59):
My son doesn't do math.
My son doesn't play football.
My son is himself.
My son doesn't play football.
My son is himself and hispersonality I mean his
personality is the selling point, and that's one thing that I
have to make abundantly clear.
When it comes to Lucas, I don'tjudge whether his autism is
accepted or beloved in our housebased on whether or not it can
(02:23):
do things that benefit me orthings that I like to do in my
world.
There's things that Lucas likesto do in his world that I don't
get, or I didn't get, I shouldsay, for the longest time
stimming things and, uh, thevideos that he's into and a lot
of the songs and the mannerismsthat he does, the clapping, the
screaming, the jumping.
(02:43):
It feels foreign until itbecomes a part of your life.
And now he and I man, I get him.
When he turns around, he clapsand he laughs at my face about
something he's looking at on hisiPad.
I laugh with him, I grab him.
I know when he's susceptible tokind of like a nudge, like a
ha-ha nudge is going make himlaugh.
I know it, I feel it.
(03:04):
I understand my son.
All of those behaviors areamazing to watch, watch them
play out, because and this iswhere I guess you could say it
benefits me watching my boyinteract with the world makes me
wanna be a happier person.
It makes me wanna find the joyin my life that he finds in his.
It's a really beautiful thing.
(03:25):
So, yeah, I write about that onHigh Blog.
I'm Dad, which, by the way,eight years eight years, like
today of doing highblogimdadcom,which is absolutely mind
blowing almost 10 years of thisI spent and I've talked about
this on here before too you knowthe vast majority of my writing
(03:45):
career writing about prowrestling, and I remember when I
used to run World WrestlingInsanity, my first book about it
, my second book and I remembercelebrating the five-year
anniversary, the 10-yearanniversary, the 15-year
anniversary of that website, andjust telling myself well, this
is what you do, this is what youwrite about.
This is the stuff that youshare with people and I love
(04:05):
doing it.
I've said it before, I'll sayit again I never really felt all
that important and a lot of bigthings happen.
You know, I was in thenewspapers out here at one point
and it's my go-to party story.
I was in a leaked memo from theWhite House when Donald Trump
was vetting Linda McMahon duringhis first administration.
They leaked a memo that had redflags that the administration
(04:33):
had cited for all the potentialcabinet members and there it was
World Wrestling Insanity twicewith the red flags for Linda
McMahon.
So yeah, that family didn't likeme.
I didn't like the family verymuch.
So I guess it all kind ofbalanced out anyway.
But stuff like that, likepeople hear that they go, oh my
God.
But it didn't feel important.
It didn't feel like I wasreally kind of sharing something
that was doing some good in theworld.
(04:53):
You know, obviously I likedwriting.
I always loved writing.
It's fun for me.
I like watching wrestling.
I still watch wrestling to thisday.
I liked meeting the people inin the business.
But when I had Lucas and Ipersonally went on my journey of
learning what autism meant forme and my family and how to
interact with it.
That felt like the thing that Iwanted to share with everybody,
and for the last eight yearsyou've allowed me to do that and
(05:15):
for that I'm so grateful, Thankyou.
Of course, the star of the showare my kids or actually, now it
should be Lucas.
Now it originally was both ofthem, originally was both of
them.
My daughter is neurotypical.
She's 16 years old, so I trynot to not to invade kind of her
privacy too much.
I know how that is.
I I know at one point they haddone a project at school she had
she was little and she was likeshe said we Googled ourselves
(05:39):
at school.
The teacher had us all Googleourselves.
She's like there's so manypictures of me, I'm sorry and
she doesn't.
She was kind of weird with that.
So I I try to pull it back alittle bit.
But make no mistake, I love my,my daughter, same kind of ways
I love Lucas, just love both mykids.
And what makes it amazing is thefact that you know, having one
neurotypical girl and having anonverbal boy with autism,
(05:59):
severe autism, however peopleterm it they're very different
people while at the same timethey both kind of have the same
fun-loving approach to life.
My daughter and I share thesame kind of humor, so I'm
eternally grateful to be a dad.
Also.
Despite their differences, Ihave very similar stories and
feelings and things that havehappened with both of my kids,
and I thought about that thisweek, right?
(06:20):
So I wrote two blogs this weekabout Lucas.
The first one was about themoment I knew he missed me when
I'm not around.
I really liked writing that one.
Hopefully you guys get a chanceto read it.
It's a big deal, because abouttwo years ago I wrote a blog
that said I didn't know if hemissed me, and now I do.
So things like that always makeme kind of happy to be able to
share.
But the second one is a toughone, and it's one that, 10 years
(06:43):
later, it still lives in me tothis day, and it was about one
of my regrets of raising Lucas,a mistake that I felt I had made
at one point that I beat myselfup for.
I have them with both kids,right, but out of the two of
them I would say that there'sone for each, and with Lucas
it's kind of people hear thatthe story.
(07:04):
But the story was that Lucaswas this, and I'm telling you
the other one too, because theother one's kind of dumb.
But I think they both kind ofshare the idea that they're
really not major, major thingsthat didn't affect anybody, to
the point where I don't thinkeither one of them really
registered what it was.
But to me as a dad, like thosethings that you kind of run
through your head.
So we're going to find out.
Today I'm going to share thesewith you and we're going to find
(07:25):
out if I'm weird as a dad and Ibeat myself up over stupid
stuff, or if you guys havesimilar things.
If you do, let me know.
So first let me tell you aboutthe one with my son, because
it's the one I wrote about onWednesday and it was called.
A Therapist Told Me to Take Awaymy Son's quote Autism Toys, and
I Wish I had.
(07:45):
Now I put autism toys in quotesbecause at the time that's what
I thought them to be.
Nowadays I know like that'sridiculous.
Why would you think that we hadbrought in a speech therapist?
Right, he's one of the firsttherapists that we had when he
was very little.
He was just about two years old, just shy of two years old and
we had speech.
Come in, we had specialeducation, we had physical
(08:06):
education, and this woman cameto my home and she was, in so
many ways, just not a greataddition to anything we had
going on.
And I don't just mean likeprofessionally, I mean she
gossiped and it was very awkwardand uncomfortable and, yeah,
she didn't last too long.
But one of the things that shetold us right off the bat she
goes here's what you have to doAny toy that he uses for
(08:30):
stimming, get rid of it.
Get rid of it Lights.
And I remember at the timebeing so desperate for somebody
to give me an instruction listof what I needed to do to help
my son, because I worried abouthim every day.
How is this kid going to be,how is he going to grow?
What can I do to get him ontrack?
(08:50):
And here is the first personwho came along and said yeah,
you can, what you need to do isthis.
So we did, and I got rid of, youknow, little light up toys, and
the one that always stuck withme it was this big activity box
that he had just gotten.
Oh, my God, even telling thestory now, guys, it's been years
(09:11):
and I tell myself this story.
He wasn't even two and I don'teven think he noticed or cared,
but I, I, oh my God, I beatmyself up over this and we gave
it away.
We donated it to his preschooland I think back now and, trust
me, he didn't wake up in themorning and cry where are my
toys.
He didn't really react likethat.
He played with something else,you know, but I hate myself for
(09:32):
it.
I took away his toys and I, youknow, as I said before, we
donated it to his school and atone point, maybe a year later,
the school was like he has thisone thing here that he loves.
It's this big activity box thathe turns dials.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, we gaveyou that activity box.
So that was a tough one and as adad, I still beat myself up
(09:52):
over it.
It didn't cure anything.
You can't cure him.
I don't want to cure him.
I hate that somebody had evenimplied that I needed to cure
him and I'm sorry that I that Idid that.
But yeah, I would never do thatnow.
But just know.
But just know that a decadelater, I'm still beating myself
up for it.
It pops in my head every once ina while and I remember he gave
away his toys.
I'm like, oh, I remember it.
(10:14):
Now, look, you're probablythinking that's stupid.
Right, like he's, he didn'tnotice it.
He got his toys, you know, youshow him how much you appreciate
him.
You I've re-bought everythingyou know 10 times over.
But if you think that is dumb,I'm going to tell you the one
about my daughter that I beatmyself up over.
This is the dumbest one.
(10:36):
I know for a fact that this oneis stupid and when you hear it
you're gonna be like what?
I don't know, I can't, it's mybrain, I don't understand it.
So when my daughter was littleit was before I think my son was
even born we were at oh, maybenot, no, maybe we were at like
an amusement park, right.
And again, I don't even knowwhat amusement park it was.
It could have been knott'sberry farm, I don't know, I have
(10:57):
no idea.
All I remember was there was apony ride kind of area we can
ride ponies and I brought herover to ride on the pony and
when we went to get on the thingwe had a ticket right.
We went to get on the pony.
This guy had little hats hangingover behind, like where the
saddles were, and I thoughtthese were like community hats
(11:18):
that kids just wore for the, youknow, for the ride or whatever.
And she went to go take one.
I was like no, no, no, no, no,don't put that on your head,
because I was freaked out.
Man.
I was always worried that likeshe was going to put like
something in her mouth, gethepatitis, whatever.
I don't know.
I didn't know how that worked.
All I knew was I was afirst-time dad.
My little princess girl withher curls is going to go on a
(11:40):
pony and here she is trying toput a lice hat on her head.
I'm like no, no, no.
And the guy came over and theguy looked over at me.
He's like no, no, no, we can't.
Oh, no, those hats aren't forus, those hats aren't for us.
I'm like all right, and she onthe pony, just go on the pony.
And we went on the pony, wentaround on the pony.
(12:01):
That was it right.
We're leaving the park later onand I see kids leaving the pony
area with the hats on and I'mlike you know people that were
using the little area.
The kids were coming off of theponies wearing these hats.
So I turned to my wife at thetime and said how are those kids
(12:21):
taking those hats?
She's like oh no, you can buythem for like $2.
They're like $2.
And I didn't know and I didn'tlet her put the hat on, I didn't
let her ride the pony with thehat on.
Hey, I told you, it's stupid.
I told you.
I said this is is gonna be astory about something I beat
(12:42):
myself up over.
That is so dumb that you'regonna be like that is really
dumb.
So, um, there you go.
Now, keep in mind I'm notbeating myself up.
I'm like, oh my god, but likeevery once in a while, just be
sitting around bored, just popsin your head.
Remember you didn't let herhave the hat.
Oh, he gave away his toys.
Oh, yeah, so it goes.
(13:02):
So, yeah, I appreciate it.
If you guys have anythingsimilar to that, let me know.
I would love to hear that.
I'd love to not feel so alonewhen it comes to some of this
crazy parenting stuff.
But it is what it is.
I want to thank you guys forlistening, for reading the blog.
It means a lot to me.
Also, this week I saw a copy ofthe cover of my upcoming book.
(13:25):
I'll have all the informationon that very soon now at this
point.
So yeah, I know I've beenteasing it and I've been.
You know I don't want to saythat I really don't.
I want to wait until we'reready to really kind of let the
world know about it.
But it's a big deal, and I wantto wait until we're ready to
really kind of let the worldknow about it.
But it's a big deal and I'mvery excited.
The book is going to be outthis year and I don't know, I
can't wait to hear what you guysthink about it.
I think if you like the blog, ifyou like this podcast, if you
(13:47):
like our experiences in myfamily and how we interact with
autism in our lives, how we'velearned to appreciate it and
kind of all the stories thatcome with it, I think you'll
love this book.
My son is I don't know man,just the center of our world, so
it's just so amazing to be ableto share it.
Tell you guys stories.
I've got stuff about mydaughter in there as well,
(14:10):
stories from the past.
So thank you so much for takingthe time this week.
I will have more information asit comes along.
Follow me on social media.
Hi, james Gutman, me on socialmedia.
Hi, james gutman.
Hi, james gutman, hello, uh,and on there, I'm on, you know,
instagram, facebook, you name it.
Uh, everything except for x anduh, and yeah, that does it for
me until next time.
This is james gutman saying bewell, bye pot, I'm dad, thank
you, I'll see you next time.
I want apple juice.
Lucas wants apple juice.
I know I heard him say that.
Can I have apple juice?
Yeah, you can have apple juice.
Can I have soda?
Yes, you can have soda.
Can I press that button?
No, you can't press that button.
Why?
Because that's going to playthe theme song.
I'm not ready to start the pot.
(00:30):
Hi Pod, I am Dad.
He's not just Hi Dad, he's mydad, james Gutman, that's me,
james Gutman.
What's up, guys?
Guys, welcome back to anotheredition of high pod.
I'm dad.
Thank you for tuning in everyfriday on spotify and all all
(00:53):
that other good stuff.
Anyway, you found me.
Thank you like subscribe.
That's what they say.
So that's what I say.
So I appreciate it.
It's great doing this podcastfor you guys each and every week
, in all the archives onhypodomdadcom and, as you know
by now, hypodomdadcom theoffshoot of highblogomdadcom
every Monday, every Wednesday,writing about raising my kids,
(01:16):
writing about autismappreciation, the idea that my
son's personality because ofautism makes him special, not
despite autism.
I don't know.
I talk about that.
Every time I talk about this Ifeel like I'm reintroducing it
again, but every time I say itout loud it always gets me a
little bit, because it's kind oftrue.
A lot of the things that wecame up with, the tolerance and
(01:38):
the things that taught us toaccept people with autism,
always involve the idea of youknow, they're just like us, they
can do our things.
Look, this kid played footballand he has autism.
Look, this kid can do math,which then helps me, which makes
his autism great.
But you know what?
(01:59):
My son doesn't do math.
My son doesn't play football.
My son is himself.
My son doesn't play football.
My son is himself and hispersonality I mean his
personality is the selling point, and that's one thing that I
have to make abundantly clear.
When it comes to Lucas, I don'tjudge whether his autism is
accepted or beloved in our housebased on whether or not it can
(02:23):
do things that benefit me orthings that I like to do in my
world.
There's things that Lucas likesto do in his world that I don't
get, or I didn't get, I shouldsay, for the longest time
stimming things and, uh, thevideos that he's into and a lot
of the songs and the mannerismsthat he does, the clapping, the
screaming, the jumping.
(02:43):
It feels foreign until itbecomes a part of your life.
And now he and I man, I get him.
When he turns around, he clapsand he laughs at my face about
something he's looking at on hisiPad.
I laugh with him, I grab him.
I know when he's susceptible tokind of like a nudge, like a
ha-ha nudge is going make himlaugh.
I know it, I feel it.
(03:04):
I understand my son.
All of those behaviors areamazing to watch, watch them
play out, because and this iswhere I guess you could say it
benefits me watching my boyinteract with the world makes me
wanna be a happier person.
It makes me wanna find the joyin my life that he finds in his.
It's a really beautiful thing.
(03:25):
So, yeah, I write about that onHigh Blog.
I'm Dad, which, by the way,eight years eight years, like
today of doing highblogimdadcom,which is absolutely mind
blowing almost 10 years of thisI spent and I've talked about
this on here before too you knowthe vast majority of my writing
(03:45):
career writing about prowrestling, and I remember when I
used to run World WrestlingInsanity, my first book about it
, my second book and I remembercelebrating the five-year
anniversary, the 10-yearanniversary, the 15-year
anniversary of that website, andjust telling myself well, this
is what you do, this is what youwrite about.
This is the stuff that youshare with people and I love
(04:05):
doing it.
I've said it before, I'll sayit again I never really felt all
that important and a lot of bigthings happen.
You know, I was in thenewspapers out here at one point
and it's my go-to party story.
I was in a leaked memo from theWhite House when Donald Trump
was vetting Linda McMahon duringhis first administration.
They leaked a memo that had redflags that the administration
(04:33):
had cited for all the potentialcabinet members and there it was
World Wrestling Insanity twicewith the red flags for Linda
McMahon.
So yeah, that family didn't likeme.
I didn't like the family verymuch.
So I guess it all kind ofbalanced out anyway.
But stuff like that, likepeople hear that they go, oh my
God.
But it didn't feel important.
It didn't feel like I wasreally kind of sharing something
that was doing some good in theworld.
(04:53):
You know, obviously I likedwriting.
I always loved writing.
It's fun for me.
I like watching wrestling.
I still watch wrestling to thisday.
I liked meeting the people inin the business.
But when I had Lucas and Ipersonally went on my journey of
learning what autism meant forme and my family and how to
interact with it.
That felt like the thing that Iwanted to share with everybody,
and for the last eight yearsyou've allowed me to do that and
(05:15):
for that I'm so grateful, Thankyou.
Of course, the star of the showare my kids or actually, now it
should be Lucas.
Now it originally was both ofthem, originally was both of
them.
My daughter is neurotypical.
She's 16 years old, so I trynot to not to invade kind of her
privacy too much.
I know how that is.
I I know at one point they haddone a project at school she had
she was little and she was likeshe said we Googled ourselves
(05:39):
at school.
The teacher had us all Googleourselves.
She's like there's so manypictures of me, I'm sorry and
she doesn't.
She was kind of weird with that.
So I I try to pull it back alittle bit.
But make no mistake, I love my,my daughter, same kind of ways
I love Lucas, just love both mykids.
And what makes it amazing is thefact that you know, having one
neurotypical girl and having anonverbal boy with autism,
(05:59):
severe autism, however peopleterm it they're very different
people while at the same timethey both kind of have the same
fun-loving approach to life.
My daughter and I share thesame kind of humor, so I'm
eternally grateful to be a dad.
Also.
Despite their differences, Ihave very similar stories and
feelings and things that havehappened with both of my kids,
and I thought about that thisweek, right?
(06:20):
So I wrote two blogs this weekabout Lucas.
The first one was about themoment I knew he missed me when
I'm not around.
I really liked writing that one.
Hopefully you guys get a chanceto read it.
It's a big deal, because abouttwo years ago I wrote a blog
that said I didn't know if hemissed me, and now I do.
So things like that always makeme kind of happy to be able to
share.
But the second one is a toughone, and it's one that, 10 years
(06:43):
later, it still lives in me tothis day, and it was about one
of my regrets of raising Lucas,a mistake that I felt I had made
at one point that I beat myselfup for.
I have them with both kids,right, but out of the two of
them I would say that there'sone for each, and with Lucas
it's kind of people hear thatthe story.
(07:04):
But the story was that Lucaswas this, and I'm telling you
the other one too, because theother one's kind of dumb.
But I think they both kind ofshare the idea that they're
really not major, major thingsthat didn't affect anybody, to
the point where I don't thinkeither one of them really
registered what it was.
But to me as a dad, like thosethings that you kind of run
through your head.
So we're going to find out.
Today I'm going to share thesewith you and we're going to find
(07:25):
out if I'm weird as a dad and Ibeat myself up over stupid
stuff, or if you guys havesimilar things.
If you do, let me know.
So first let me tell you aboutthe one with my son, because
it's the one I wrote about onWednesday and it was called.
A Therapist Told Me to Take Awaymy Son's quote Autism Toys, and
I Wish I had.
(07:45):
Now I put autism toys in quotesbecause at the time that's what
I thought them to be.
Nowadays I know like that'sridiculous.
Why would you think that we hadbrought in a speech therapist?
Right, he's one of the firsttherapists that we had when he
was very little.
He was just about two years old, just shy of two years old and
we had speech.
Come in, we had specialeducation, we had physical
(08:06):
education, and this woman cameto my home and she was, in so
many ways, just not a greataddition to anything we had
going on.
And I don't just mean likeprofessionally, I mean she
gossiped and it was very awkwardand uncomfortable and, yeah,
she didn't last too long.
But one of the things that shetold us right off the bat she
goes here's what you have to doAny toy that he uses for
(08:30):
stimming, get rid of it.
Get rid of it Lights.
And I remember at the timebeing so desperate for somebody
to give me an instruction listof what I needed to do to help
my son, because I worried abouthim every day.
How is this kid going to be,how is he going to grow?
What can I do to get him ontrack?
(08:50):
And here is the first personwho came along and said yeah,
you can, what you need to do isthis.
So we did, and I got rid of, youknow, little light up toys, and
the one that always stuck withme it was this big activity box
that he had just gotten.
Oh, my God, even telling thestory now, guys, it's been years
(09:11):
and I tell myself this story.
He wasn't even two and I don'teven think he noticed or cared,
but I, I, oh my God, I beatmyself up over this and we gave
it away.
We donated it to his preschooland I think back now and, trust
me, he didn't wake up in themorning and cry where are my
toys.
He didn't really react likethat.
He played with something else,you know, but I hate myself for
(09:32):
it.
I took away his toys and I, youknow, as I said before, we
donated it to his school and atone point, maybe a year later,
the school was like he has thisone thing here that he loves.
It's this big activity box thathe turns dials.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, we gaveyou that activity box.
So that was a tough one and as adad, I still beat myself up
(09:52):
over it.
It didn't cure anything.
You can't cure him.
I don't want to cure him.
I hate that somebody had evenimplied that I needed to cure
him and I'm sorry that I that Idid that.
But yeah, I would never do thatnow.
But just know.
But just know that a decadelater, I'm still beating myself
up for it.
It pops in my head every once ina while and I remember he gave
away his toys.
I'm like, oh, I remember it.
(10:14):
Now, look, you're probablythinking that's stupid.
Right, like he's, he didn'tnotice it.
He got his toys, you know, youshow him how much you appreciate
him.
You I've re-bought everythingyou know 10 times over.
But if you think that is dumb,I'm going to tell you the one
about my daughter that I beatmyself up over.
This is the dumbest one.
(10:36):
I know for a fact that this oneis stupid and when you hear it
you're gonna be like what?
I don't know, I can't, it's mybrain, I don't understand it.
So when my daughter was littleit was before I think my son was
even born we were at oh, maybenot, no, maybe we were at like
an amusement park, right.
And again, I don't even knowwhat amusement park it was.
It could have been knott'sberry farm, I don't know, I have
(10:57):
no idea.
All I remember was there was apony ride kind of area we can
ride ponies and I brought herover to ride on the pony and
when we went to get on the thingwe had a ticket right.
We went to get on the pony.
This guy had little hats hangingover behind, like where the
saddles were, and I thoughtthese were like community hats
(11:18):
that kids just wore for the, youknow, for the ride or whatever.
And she went to go take one.
I was like no, no, no, no, no,don't put that on your head,
because I was freaked out.
Man.
I was always worried that likeshe was going to put like
something in her mouth, gethepatitis, whatever.
I don't know.
I didn't know how that worked.
All I knew was I was afirst-time dad.
My little princess girl withher curls is going to go on a
(11:40):
pony and here she is trying toput a lice hat on her head.
I'm like no, no, no.
And the guy came over and theguy looked over at me.
He's like no, no, no, we can't.
Oh, no, those hats aren't forus, those hats aren't for us.
I'm like all right, and she onthe pony, just go on the pony.
And we went on the pony, wentaround on the pony.
(12:01):
That was it right.
We're leaving the park later onand I see kids leaving the pony
area with the hats on and I'mlike you know people that were
using the little area.
The kids were coming off of theponies wearing these hats.
So I turned to my wife at thetime and said how are those kids
(12:21):
taking those hats?
She's like oh no, you can buythem for like $2.
They're like $2.
And I didn't know and I didn'tlet her put the hat on, I didn't
let her ride the pony with thehat on.
Hey, I told you, it's stupid.
I told you.
I said this is is gonna be astory about something I beat
(12:42):
myself up over.
That is so dumb that you'regonna be like that is really
dumb.
So, um, there you go.
Now, keep in mind I'm notbeating myself up.
I'm like, oh my god, but likeevery once in a while, just be
sitting around bored, just popsin your head.
Remember you didn't let herhave the hat.
Oh, he gave away his toys.
Oh, yeah, so it goes.
(13:02):
So, yeah, I appreciate it.
If you guys have anythingsimilar to that, let me know.
I would love to hear that.
I'd love to not feel so alonewhen it comes to some of this
crazy parenting stuff.
But it is what it is.
I want to thank you guys forlistening, for reading the blog.
It means a lot to me.
Also, this week I saw a copy ofthe cover of my upcoming book.
(13:25):
I'll have all the informationon that very soon now at this
point.
So yeah, I know I've beenteasing it and I've been.
You know I don't want to saythat I really don't.
I want to wait until we'reready to really kind of let the
world know about it.
But it's a big deal, and I wantto wait until we're ready to
really kind of let the worldknow about it.
But it's a big deal and I'mvery excited.
The book is going to be outthis year and I don't know, I
can't wait to hear what you guysthink about it.
I think if you like the blog, ifyou like this podcast, if you
(13:47):
like our experiences in myfamily and how we interact with
autism in our lives, how we'velearned to appreciate it and
kind of all the stories thatcome with it, I think you'll
love this book.
My son is I don't know man,just the center of our world, so
it's just so amazing to be ableto share it.
Tell you guys stories.
I've got stuff about mydaughter in there as well,
(14:10):
stories from the past.
So thank you so much for takingthe time this week.
I will have more information asit comes along.
Follow me on social media.
Hi, james Gutman, me on socialmedia.
Hi, james gutman.
Hi, james gutman, hello, uh,and on there, I'm on, you know,
instagram, facebook, you name it.
Uh, everything except for x anduh, and yeah, that does it for
me until next time.
This is james gutman saying bewell, bye pot, I'm dad, thank
you, I'll see you next time.
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