UK or England thread?

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I haven't watched tonight's episode yet.

Anyone else find Mick and Linda Carter annoying at the moment?

Yes, your kid is autistic. Not the end of the world.

I'm just finding it annoying to watch as an autistic person. I much prefer Roy Cropper from Corrie who is vaguely canonically autistic (his actor said he plays him as if he's aspie and the writers have started to write him that way too) who's treated like a rounded human being with both strengths and weaknesses in him.

Maybe because Ollie is a kid but still... autistic kids aren't all just one bundle of misery and disappointment. They did try to show that though with him being good at jigsaws meant for older children.

I don't find their behaviour annoying as they are just parents with no real knowledge about autism , the script was written with help from the National Autistic Society.

I think a lot of people will get educated about autism due to Eastenders , admittedly it is a 'child' storyline but it has scope for adults.

https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/ ... yline.aspx

Yes; I don't watch EastEnders, but I agree with this in principle. Before I discovered WP, I used to use the NAS forums quite a lot - most people in the UK receiving an autism diagnosis for themselves or a loved one get advised to go there. I saw a lot of distraught, panicking parents there; and for the most part it was because they'd received far too little information about autism to have any idea what the diagnosis really meant. Like most parents, they have a mental image in their head of the life they hope their child will have, and they feel that this dream has been shattered because they have no frame of reference for imagining an alternative one which includes autism. Even if they do have greater knowledge of autism, they will also likely know that fighting for the support that they and their child might need is likely to be a constant, draining battle for access to underfunded and understaffed resources.

That may not be as we wish it would be; but if it's what EastEnders is showing, it's an accurate reflection of many parents' experience, I think. Their reaction isn't a reflection of their moral character, it's a consequence of society's misconceptions about autism and poor post-diagnosis follow-up support. I hope they'll go on to show the family coming to terms with the diagnosis by challenging the stereotypes, and address some of the discrimination that such families can face.

Now Corrie (who won't come out on screen and say they have an autistic character but code him as autistic and talk off screen about him being autistic) is doing the same with Roy.

It is possible for our parents to love us. My mother loves me. My father doesn't.

Roy is being depicted as someone whose mother was capable of love but never loved him. Then his being blunt or being introverted is being blamed on her.

At least EE have got advice and the Carters love their son and hopefully the Carters will come around to accepting their autistic son as he is and Ollie will be shown with both strengths and weaknesses coming from autism, as well as his own personality.

I find it offensive because it implies our parents wish we were different to how we are and even implies our parents don't love us. Yes, some bad parents are like that. And yes, with kids, some people would find it easier to have NT kids. (mum always told me she preferred having an aspie kid esp in my teen years, it was when I acted NT she started to worry about me going out on the town or whatever). And yes it takes a lot to get your head around esp if you're both NT (does that happen irl btw?) but autistic people are not inherently unlovable/unacceptable by a parent whose love and acceptance is meant to be unconditional.

I'd like there to be a character who is autistic but whose parents accept them.

I'm pretty sure Riley and Chatham Taylor are autistic and Karen loves and accepts them.

I believe my Mum found it difficult to love me (she's NT so would never admit this) but then my parents didn't know I was autistic until well into adulthood. Luckily my sister was a huge disappointment too and she's NT.

I haven't seen the soaps.

Are they? I didn't realise that, I knew they were 'different' but it doesn't say why.

Good if they are. That's what I want - yes, some parents don't accept autistic kids but some do and they need to be shown otherwise people who think they or their kid might be autistic won't see families like mine where it is accepted.

That said, my mum only knew one person was autistic before me and the woman she knew was autistic had difficulties with violence so mum didn't accept the diagnosis at first. She always accepted me, just wanted to believe my Asperger's was 'just my personality'.

I checked and I can only find out that they are brothers IRL and have learning difficulties ( no mention of autism )

I'm sorry fluffy but I had to chuckle at this! My mother is the same way, and I can totally identify.

Hugs

Not even like Roy on Corrie which they never mention except in interview.

I think in a way the fact that Roy's only coded that way and never explicitly said to be autistic on the show is ok. A lot of gay people object to 'queer coding' and this is a kind of 'autism coding' - writing him and acting him as autistic and acknowledging it off set but never outright having a character say it so therefore it's vaguely canonical and vaguely not. The reason I think it's OK to do that with Roy is, I don't think the character is diagnosed so David Nielson is specifically playing him as an undiagnosed autistic man. Which is probably quite common for autistic people of an older generation.

But with the Taylors - they'd know someone of that generation was autistic. Or what else they were (hopefully). So they should outright say what it is.

Talking of Taylors, anyone else think that Bernadette could be coded as HFA? Idk if it's just because she's gay or not conventionally attractive (I feel mean saying that) but she's very clever (chess) yet struggles in friendship and with girls and doesn't seem to know what to talk to girls/friends about except chess.

I finally ordered a freezer. This has been in the top three of my to do list for twelve years. It's coming a week on Wednesday.

whispers of 34C tomorrow.

I am going to melt

We were going to a have curry for our Saturday night meal tomorrow... now we've changed it to a Mediterranean-style cold buffet... with loads of pink fizz (it's in the fridge already).

Would my WP buddies like me to do a card reading on the UK to see what is in store for your country?

♡◇ ♧♤

I would, Twiz.
I know that the cards will say what they say, but good news would be great...

sounds lovely.

France just hit 44C. eek!