Latest / Let's Ask the Mamas! / "Love on the Spectrum"

Transcript

"Love on the Spectrum" · Let's Ask the Mamas!

• 0:00
  We got a question for American mamas. Dear mamas, have you been watching
• 0:02
  that show Love on the Spectrum. Well, let's ask our American mama's.
• 0:07
  Mama, Mama and joining us now our American mama's Terry Needeville and Kimberly Burlison.
• 0:23
  I have not watched this show, but Terry, you've been watching them.
• 0:27
  Have to watch this show. We really got me on it. We're
• 0:31
  obsessed. We're obsessed with This is a Netflix show called Love on the Spectrum
• 0:35
  and it's people with different stages of well on the different spectrum scale of autism,
• 0:41
  Down syndrome, William syndrome, and they're finding love. They're they're finding
• 0:45
  love with each other. And if you want, if you're in a bad
• 0:49
  mood, watch this show, because you it'll put you in the best mood.
• 0:53
  It'll make you smile, It'll make you happy cry. It is so
• 0:57
  beautiful to watch these people. What was was that one word or two?
• 1:00
  Happy? Cry? Is that one word? Happy cry? Happy? And
• 1:08
  you know what I discovered watching this the families of those that have Aspergers or
• 1:15
  Down syndrome or whatever autism. The family they're so empathetic and compassionate and the
• 1:21
  way that they speak to their children is so loving and so good and kind,
• 1:26
  and those on the spectrum they absorb it to such a degree that I
• 1:30
  told Kimberly and Lindsay yesterday, I said, it's almost like they're of a
• 1:34
  different era because they talk to each other with such polite uh, you know,
• 1:40
  there's a politeness. They have such manners, and they say they have
• 1:44
  no filter. So we were talking about how when they go on these dates,
• 1:48
  you know, they might say, how do you feel now about me
• 1:52
  after having this date with me? At the end of the date. It's
• 1:55
  one of those things that as you know, normal people that aren't on a
• 1:57
  spectrum, we have those sites like a I wonder, I wonder how he
• 2:00
  felt about me, But we would never ever in a million years ask that
• 2:05
  is that it? Oh man? That's that brings up a really good question.
• 2:08
  Is it a filter or is it courage? Because a lot of times
• 2:12
  it's not that we have a filter that stops us from saying that it's a
• 2:15
  lack of courage. Oh that is so good. Yeah, that's exactly what
• 2:19
  it is. Because we were saying as we were watching it, we were
• 2:21
  like, this is exactly they're saying. Everything we feel. Everything that they're
• 2:24
  saying is what we feel. We just don't say it, and it's right.
• 2:29
  We don't have the courage to see it. We feel it's the wrong
• 2:30
  time. They don't care. And one of the things that like the moms,
• 2:35
  you know, the moms get emotional because one of my favorite couples,
• 2:38
  Abby and David, they're just I mean, you just it's almost like all
• 2:43
  of a lot of them are very attuned to Disney princess movies. Okay,
• 2:50
  a lot of the things that they equate their relationship to is I want to
• 2:53
  feel like a princess. I love romance, and the guys feel the same
• 2:57
  way. And it's very you can tell that it sounds like that they were
• 3:00
  our children, even if they're twenty something. They sound like they're little children.
• 3:06
  But development wise, yes, they're often a little bit behind. Oh
• 3:09
  yes, yes, for sure. And then there's some like James. As
• 3:13
  for those who watch this show, he is brilliant. He's one that's like
• 3:19
  he taught. You can tell that he's on the spectrum. But they retained
• 3:22
  so much that if somebody mentions one subject matter, he'll go into a whole
• 3:27
  essay about the year of that, and it's there's a brilliance. There are
• 3:31
  some of them. They're brilliant. I said something the other day and I
• 3:37
  posted it and I had some flack about it, and Terry was talking about
• 3:39
  Mark Zuckerberg and she saw something and I made the comment, I think he's
• 3:45
  on the spectrum. You can tell, you know, through brilliance. Well
• 3:49
  I had some people that were very offended by that, and I was like,
• 3:53
  no, there's nothing. I wasn't trying to offend. It's a beautiful
• 3:57
  thing. It's a I think there are people that are on this. They're
• 4:00
  beautiful people, but there is a height and brilliance about them. And that
• 4:03
  was my observation. And you know what else, I noticed that they said
• 4:06
  they know they're different. Like when Abby speaks about it, she says she
• 4:11
  felt like Ariel, a mermaid that wanted to be on land. And they'll
• 4:15
  talk about they know that there's something different with their brain, but they also
• 4:18
  want to feel the love and be accepted by society the way that we all
• 4:23
  are that are not on the spectrum. And so I thought, how interesting
• 4:26
  that they are so aware of what's happening inside of them, and then the
• 4:30
  parents have to help them navigate through that, and the siblings have to help
• 4:32
  them navigate through that, and they're so proud when they reach a milestone,
• 4:38
  and it's just a beautiful show. And it kind of makes there's such good
• 4:43
  people that you're like, oh, you know, I want to be like,
• 4:46
  you know, root for them, you do? You just root for
• 4:48
  them. You root for them to find love and to feel those things.
• 4:51
  There's a you know, there's some uncomfortable parts too, but that's also life,
• 4:57
  very very interesting. And I have some friends who actually live at a
• 5:01
  community center, an adult living center for people who have a variety of mental
• 5:08
  development issues, and that's they're like counselors there and that's what they do,
• 5:13
  so that they live with adults going through exactly what you're talking about with this
• 5:15
  show all the time, and it really one it's interesting for those folks,
• 5:18
  but I think it also takes a special heart to be the pattern of that
• 5:23
  or the people who are working in those groups, they're amazing. One of
• 5:27
  the moms was helping her son. He had to let a girl a date
• 5:30
  down easily and say I just want to be friends, and the mom was
• 5:34
  coaching him and so when he got on the phone and finally said, I
• 5:38
  just hope that we can be friends. I just don't think this is And
• 5:42
  afterwards she came and she said, I'm so proud of you, Connor.
• 5:45
  I'm so proud because you let her know. Girls like to know where you
• 5:48
  stand. They don't want to be, you know, in the dark.
• 5:51
  Yes, and he understood that. He felt so proud of himself. And
• 5:55
  then she told the other the brother that was sitting next to because you could
• 5:58
  learn something from him. You know, it's really cute. If you like
• 6:00
  to ask our American Mama is a question. Good to our website American ground
• 6:03
  Radio dot com slash mama and click on the ask the Mama's button. Terry,
• 6:05
  Netteville, Kimberly bur listen. Thank you so much, Thank you,