More Newbie Terms

[Guest guest]

Finally, I figured out what " Refrigerator Mother " means. I've heard the

term bandied back and forth, but by context it really wasn't that important

since refrigerator parents don't cause autism. (For anyone still in my

predicament, it refers to an " emotional coldness. " )

I was confused because in a psychology class I took before I knew that much

about autism, they used autism as an example of the dangers of

pseudoscience, and talked about how some guy used the idea of mother-as-ogre

as the " cause " of autism... that autistic children were SCARED of their

mothers. The idea of a refrigerator, to my " inner child, " is of a big,

dark, cold, scary place that food comes out of. It wasn't just that the

parent was cold... but was as frightening as a large refrigerator could be

to a small child.

I finally realized the pun while reading " Diagnosing Jefferson, " where the

author explained it. Until then, I wasn't quite sure what it meant,

although I assumed it had little to do with the insult from the Steve

Guttenburg classic, Short-Circuit, " Your mother was a snow-blower! "

Does anyone have an Autistic Arcana page?

____________________

" I'm easily confused. It's part of my boyish charm. "

-- Kaiden Fox