Dad’s emotional message to people who didn’t invite his son with autism to their kids’ birthday parties

A father would do just about anything for his son. But some things are just out of a parent’s control, such as party invites from classmates. One dad recently shared an emotional message for all of the parents who excluded his son, who has autism, from birthday parties and more. Sadly, out of all of he and his wife’s friends with children their son’s age, they didn’t get a single invitation. Not one.

The message was shared via the Twitter account for his wife’s blog, The Life of Reilly. It read:

“My son Reilly has autism not f***ing leprosy; he is six years old and my so called friends who have kids also have kids [sic] parties.” He continued, “Have you any idea how hurtful that is?”

https://twitter.com/life_of_reillys/status/926874427140268033

He ended the passionate message by writing, “He’s not an after thought [sic] he’s my every f***ing thought.”

Since the message was posted to Twitter, it’s garnered over 2,000 retweets and over 6,000 likes. Based on the responses, there are other parents who can relate to this heartbreaking problem and many who applaud this father for saying something about it—because this is an issue all parents face at one time or another.

“How lucky to have a dad like that,” one person wrote on Twitter.

“No one gets it unless you’re in it. But I’ve learnt to let go of those friends,” another wrote.

Another parent even invited Reilly to his son’s birthday party.

https://twitter.com/markbounce/status/927581145289707527

By posting this message, Reilly’s parents garnered so much support and admiration from complete strangers online. “As the father of an autistic son, you both have my enormous respect,” a fellow parent wrote.

Before sending this message, Reilly’s parents felt isolated.

“Shane was incredibly upset at the thought of Reilly not being part of his circle of friends. This incident was just the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Reilly’s mom, Christine Stephenson, told the Huffington Post. “We struggle for support, we have no regular childcare and feel very isolated.”

The support of others online has got to make these parents feel somewhat better, knowing they’re not alone.

“Every message I have received has the same words. This happened to my son/daughter/granddaughter/grandson too, my child was the only one not invited,” Christine said.

She notes that she and her husband have learned a lot from this experience, but one lesson stands out above all:

“One thing is for sure, from reading the messages of support we have received from people around the world, there has never been a greater need for better understanding,” she told the Huffington Post.

Considering 1 in 68 children have autism spectrum disorder, according to Autism Speaks, this is an issue that all parents need to understand. Hopefully this message will help raise awareness and get more kids with autism invited to more parties in the future.