You know, when I tell people about our family’s unique make-up, I often get variations on one familiar response. It’s usually a combination of incredulity and well-intentioned pity. “Six kids? And they’re all on the autism spectrum? Wow, that must be so hard!”

Sure it’s hard. And challenging. Even daunting at times. But not to worry. We’ve got this. Why? Because special-needs parents have a very particular set of skills. They are skills we have developed over time as we have learned how to assimilate to our new normal, articulate the facts about our kids’ diagnoses, and advocate for them far and wide.

What are these skills? They are too many to count, actually. But the list below contains some of the more important ones. Take a look at them, and then ask yourself whether incredulity and pity are the best responses.

1. Legal expertise. We know how to read a Federal law—and how to spot our family in it. It takes a special kind of person to know the ins and outs of Public Law 108-446, 118 Stat. 2647. It’s the kind of person who can point to this law with the kind of pride that many graduates point to their yearbooks. “See that? That’s us they’re talking about.”
2. Close, personal relationships with members of the medical community. And the counseling community. And the law enforcement community. And all the local pharmacists.
3. Elite status in our kids’ schools. Lunchroom moms and classroom volunteers? Rank amateurs. We have the principal on speed dial. Hell, some of us are on a first-name basis with school board members.
4. No-Mess vision. It’s like x-ray vision, only way cooler. Cluttered countertops and overloaded kitchen sinks disappear before our very eyes. Piles of unwashed laundry melt away. Furniture damaged in melt downs or picked to shreds by anxious, OCD fingers blend into the walls and (beat-up) carpet.
5. Membership in exclusive online communities. Other people call them support groups, but what do they know? We call them by their true names: Tribe. Extended Family. Confidantes. Council Elders. Best Friends.
6. Premier access to upper-level insurance representatives. We know how to jump over the call-center drones half a world away and get right to the decision makers. We know the secret words that will get us there. We have their access codes in the form of multi-digit extension numbers.
7. An unwavering commitment to date day. It’s more than just keeping the “romantic spark” in our marriage. It’s a matter flat out survival. But never at night. That’s the witching hour. It’s Saturday lunches for us. Or Sunday afternoon excursions to the grocery store together. It’s also the occasional getaway courtesy of a generous family member. Whatever it takes to keep us sane.
8. Super intelligence. Words like methylphenidate, comorbidity, and neurodiversity roll off our tongues. We can spot the difference between OCD, ODD, and ADD at a hundred yards. We know what FAPE is and how to get it—and no, it’s not a contagious disease. We know how to take control of IEP meetings and how to explain complex neurological disorders to curious laymen and benighted teachers alike.
9. Unbreakable strides. We don’t let little things like setbacks, discrimination, added diagnoses, or institutional ignorance slow us down. We know how to keep moving forward despite whatever obstacles or opposition we might face. We started our march with the first diagnosis, and nothing is going to stop us from doing everything we can for our kids.
10. Wide open eyes. Where others might see stubbornness, we see a kid struggling with sensory overload. Where others see defiance, we see a perseverative loop. We have learned to perceive love in the quirky, the ordinary, and the bizarre. We can see joy in chaos and sadness in violence.
11. Thick, thick skin. I’m talking rhino-hide thick. Judgmental stares bounce off us. Hurtful words shatter on impact. We laugh at denials of service, and scoff at the word No. How did our skin get so tough, you ask? From the salt of all the tears we shed early in our journey.
12. Soft, soft hearts. We melt when we see a fellow traveler at the park or in the store—a young man flapping his hands or a small girl tapping on every window she passes. When we spot parents out with their special-needs kids, we smile broadly and have to resist the urge to run over and give them bear hugs. Our eyes mist up when our ten-year-old learns how to ride a bike or our first-grader gives us a hug. We have learned to receive love in unorthodox ways and unexpected circumstances. And we have learned how to give love in ways we never thought were possible. We excuse the inexcusable, embrace the inexplicable, and cherish the (seemingly) trivial.

So there they are: twelve key skills of a special-needs parent. As you can tell, we don’t want pity. We’re doing quite well without it, thank you very much.

However, if you wanted to give us cash, we wouldn’t object.