Having a sibling on the autism spectrum

Graham

Well that’s the one thing that I think I miss not having a normal brother where I can’t talk to him about any problems I have. Which I know like which is nice that, like my ex-girlfriend like is really good friends with her sister. They would go out together and they would like always talk to each other first if there was any issues and stuff. And that’s the one thing I do really think that I missed out on. In that sense though, I feel like an only child in certain aspects, when it’s like, when people talk about having brothers and sisters and I will say, “Well I’ve got an autistic brother.” And it’s kind of like a half way relationship where there’s like half of having a brother I’ve missed out on, but there’s still the other half that’s fine. But as I said before there’s lots that’s made up for it and I wouldn’t change it. But that would be the one difficult thing.

Ellie

And when did they start coming in to look after him?

It must have been about nine years ago I think. When we lived here for a year and he must have been about four. And we just needed people in the mornings to get him dressed or some people in the after, evening to look after him if my mum went out, it was just constant. It was at least four times a week and then just, it was really annoying at times, just people coming in and talking to you when you want to do homework.

Sophie

I think it’s kind of made me think more into it, you know, if I really want kids, do I just go for it, or do I, you know, think about my relationship with my husband or anything like that, you know, it kind of, I don’t know, it makes you think about all sorts. Because I’ve seen how my Mum struggled and I don’t want, that sounds awful because I’m going to look after my brother, but she is a selfless person, given up everything and now she’s paying for it, but you can see it’s affected her and I don’t really want to be that unhappy when I’m older so, yeah. I think about it a lot. Yeah.