I’m an autistic adult with two autistic sons, a nondescriptly neurodiverse husband.
I’ve adopted a parenting framework called Calm the Chaos where we refer to our kids as superkids. I love that, so I’ve adopted it here. My kids will each be SK followed by their age at the time of writing for each post.
My husband is called Sparky because he has a background in electrical engineering.
Our dog is called Toasty because she is white with some cream-colored patches and a friend once commented that she looks like a toasty marshmallow.
People often ask why I named my company and this blog Mockingbird Jane when my name is actually Michelle. Autistic females tend to be excellent mimics. That’s certainly true for me and it’s why I chose Mockingbird. Also, To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book, so it felt like a no-brainer. Mockingbird on its own is too popular, though, so I needed to add to it. I chose Jane mostly because I traditionally try to be invisible, meaning be noticed as little as possible, and I have an obsession with forensic science and true crime, so Jane is for Jane Doe. And a little bit because Jane rhymes with Lane.
I’ve been blogging, mostly sporadically, on my site Life with the Quirky Boys for about ten years. As the name suggests, I wrote mostly about my experiences with my boys. I plan to depart from that a little here at Mockingbird Jane. I’ll still talk about parenting autistic children as an autistic adult, but I’m going to shift focus to more of my own interests like:
- my new art project involving creating crazy portraits from photos of peoples’ pets;
- cooking;
- recommending books, movies, and TV shows with great storytelling;
- writing and illustrating;
- special needs information and tool recommendations
I hate looking at ads on websites, but love recommending great stuff, so please help me monetize the site by following the Amazon (or other affiliate) links to things I’ve recommended that you are interested in purchasing. Or, even better, by purchasing something I designed!
You’ll find links to my blog, store, and resource page on my home page.