I remember a little shit of a bully in primary school (later high school) saying to me, "I feel sorry for your father for having you." If I saw him today, I would say, "Know what? My father doesn't wish he had two neurotypical kids." (I remember this kid tormenting a classmate whose mother had died and the principal was going to cane the bully but the kid asked him not to).

I say to parents of autistic kids, don't wish for neurotypical kids, embrace the unique autistic kid that you have. That kid may not have good gross or fine motor skills, but that kid might have a talent for math, spelling, history, science anything. That kid may not be a high achieving sportsperson, but they might be an academic.

A stupid right-wing politician believes that transgender kids are that way because their parents wanted a child of the opposite sex, and I can tell that stupid politician something, if you try to force a boy to be a girl or a girl to be a boy, and they don't want to be, they will rebel. So, it's more like parents wanting to help their child be happy.

I remember, also, a gay man telling me that he thought his partner had supportive parents, but after his partner's mother died, his partner's father went up to him and said, "I was only pretending for your mother. I don't want to see you again."

A parent to an autistic child is not an heroic parent, nor should they be a martyr. They may face challenges, but when you signed up for parenting, you signed up to take whatever you got, not a designer baby.