Autism Every Day (2006) User Reviews

Not an accurate portrayal of life with autism.

[westtexasdevil · 1/10 · 15 December 2009]

I commented on this film long ago and for some reason it disappeared. I parent a child with autism, life is not NEARLY as bad as this film makes it out to be. I found it dangerous that so many people now see THIS as living with autism. Are there challenges? OF COURSE. However, most of the challenges are from people's reactions to my son, not his autism itself. Families like mine do not need sympathy. What we WOULD VERY much appreciate is acceptance. Overall, for those of you not personally affected by autism, please don't take this film as gospel. This film does not by a LONG shot portray how all of us are. And yes, if you're wondering, I'm not the father of a child with Asperger's. My son has "classic" or "severe" (though i hate that term) autism.

Technically poor film-making and one sided story telling.

[krebs-michelle · 1/10 · 4 January 2008]

From a purely technical standpoint, what stood out for me most in this film was the crappy sound.

The kids in the background, who should BE in the background, had their voices overemphasized, with screams meant to jar the audience out of their chairs. There were also a couple of times where I swear that some of the screaming/grunting/whining was looped.

Which leads to my second point.

(paraphrasing) "sometimes I thought of strapping Jodie in the car and driving off the George Washington Bridge... it's only because of Lauren" my "normal" (my word) child...

What is Thierry trying to accomplish, exactly? The first comment on this board says that (paraphrasing) "I know I'm not having kids now." I agree with Correy Lennox. If someone is not familiar with autism this is a dangerous movie.

And if someone is not familiar with good documentary film-making, it's also a dangerous movie.

Autism Every Day...

[ebony_mom · 1/10 · 7 April 2008]

I am the mother of an autistic son. Watching this film, I cried for those poor children!!! These parents had a lot of help and resources and yet all they seemed to do was complain about their lives being over and wanting to die to end the pain of themselves and their children. My son is almost eight and when he was first diagnosed at 2, he had no language, had many emotional outburst, would not look you in the eye, walked on his toes, flapped his hands, etc...I know where these people are coming from! The difference is that I did not look at this condition as making my life harder, I looked at it from the view of making life easier for my son. We could not afford private instruction and therapy. My son was recommended 30 hours a week of speech and he got 30 minutes etc. We talked to him and made exceptions and he now spends four out of five days in the mainstream classroom and gets straight A's. Most people have no idea that he is anything but our son and that is what he is!! These parent's are the ones in need of therapy and medication. How dare they look at their beautiful children and sing the "Woe is me!!" song. What a horrible film!!!!!!

A GREAT movie that everyone who doesn't know someone with autism should definitely see and those who do should share with others.

[autismmom4 · 10/10 · 3 January 2007]

I think this is an excellent view of what life is like for the family of a child with autism, the daily struggles and stress and frustration. It shows the isolation many of us feel in trying to be "normal"....I hope it comes out on DVD so I can purchase it and share it with many of my friends, family and church members. I hope that it will help others understand what we, as parents go through and hopefully have more compassion for us and the children who are dealing with the autism and their siblings. Day to day life can be so hard and so many of the "normal" people take that for granted. I hope this film reaches millions and millions of people, especially the educators of our children in the school systems across America.

It is a strong statement that will help many Americans see what it is like to raise a child with autism and how we, as parents, deserve compassion and so do these children.

This movie is well done, and tells a story that needs to be told.

[dwinn-4 · 18 August 2008]

I am the mother of a 10 year old girl with Autism. This movie shows the reality that comes with having a child with a disability. The majority of the population can ignore the trials we live with every day, but that doesn't make them any less real, or any less heartbreaking. This film hit home for me, and it was like they were telling my story too. I've been through all the same things as they have and more. The endless sleepless nights and days, the screaming, people being really mean to us and acting like our daughter was just being a brat when they had no idea she is autistic, or even about why she was crying and pitching a fit. My daughter also ran out into mainstream traffic at age 2, and I thought my heart would stop, especially if she was hit by a car. I went to Walmart to buy a harness, and 4 different people told me I was cruel to do that to her. We just can't win. This film is a good beginning towards teaching others how it is for us. Not everyone has to deal with it, but someday, these children will be needing to have someone else care for them. We won't all live forever, and these things need to be shown to the world. Thank you!

Genuinely horrible portrayal of autism

[hannahh-39842 · 1/10 · 31 October 2023]

Watched the 13-minute version for an English essay. As an autistic person who frequents autism rights activism stuff on the internet, I'd heard of the notorious scene where one of the moms says she wanted to kill her child at one point and only didn't because of her non-autistic child, but I didn't realize how awful the rest of it was as well. The entire film is essentially a compilation of these children's meltdowns (which, morally speaking, definitely shouldn't have been filmed without the children's consent), many of which you can tell were provoked by the parents who are complaining about how awful their lives are because of said meltdowns. The scene where one child is being forced to use the swings by her mom and then when she starts crying because she doesn't want to use the swing the mother complains about how weird she must look because of the meltdown is the most egregious instance of this. The children are implied to be suffering while they're acting mostly like normal children when their sensory issues aren't being triggered. For the love of god, listen to autistic people about autism instead of these people. It's not a disease, it's just our lives.

The real meaning of "spectrum" made plain

[johnegon · 9/10 · 13 April 2019]

I applaud the film and the filmmakers showing some of the extreme edges of ASD. My family lives on one of those edges. The stress, anger, guilt, exhaustion, love, depression, fear . . . is overwhelming at times despite the best intentions and support of family, friends, and government services. ASD will teach you that everyone has a breaking point; that our individual humanity is not limitless. The scariest part of being a parent of an autistic child is the knowledge (if you are self-aware), that you will reach that breaking point, and you do know know what sort of person lives on the other side of it until you do. The hope is that, as Hemmingway wrote, "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places."

Actual garbage

[maxmorris-04232 · 1/10 · 26 February 2024]

Autism Every Day, a series of statements and stories from the mothers of autistic children, beginning with a montage of autistic children, often screaming, this sets up having an autistic child as a hassle, this is not helped by the testimonies given by these mothers, describing that their autistic child doesn't speak or how "I still hope I won't be changing diapers when he's 6 and a half" and saying that they have ha to devote their entire life to the caring of this child, quitting their jobs and that the only people they can talk to are other parents of autistic children and going on and on and on about how difficult their day to day life is and how it so hurts emotionally, "knowing about the future (seemingly implying that he wont be able to have a successful future) and all the pain he's in, I don't think they can understand that." these mothers act as if their lives have been ruined by the autism, that they just have to do everything too appease their child. A whole section of this video is dedicated to stories of when these mothers autistic children ran out of the door by themselves, running into the road, these mothers thought it best to call the police for one child running about, they describe terror they felt of their child getting struck by a car and dying, you wouldn't want that to happen to your child, would you, this happened because of autism, autism will kill your child, donate to autism speaks so they will stop autism killing your child "I feel like i'm playing this game which is life or death to me". They describe how you cannot stop this, one mother expresses her shame about her child who looks to be about 5 using a pacifier which he is 'too old for' that these mothers are "expected to do things no human being should be expected to do.". These mothers claim that they are judged for abusing their child due to autistic behaviours such as screaming or crying and in the end it all loops back around to how these autistic children are such a burden on their parents. The next section is on how they have to be educated, that they cant be, that these children can't live up to their parents hopes and how they are forced to be put into these "overcrowded classes with twelve students to one teacher and the kids can't make progress." (lol imagine calling a class of 12 overcrowded). Tucked away in this relatively meaningless section is the worst part of this advert and I think its best to just quote the part "but I remember, that was a very scary moment for me, when I realised I had sat in the car for about 15 minutes, and actually contemplated putting Jodie in the car, driving off the George Washington Bridge, and that that would be preferable to having to put her in one of these schools. And it's only because of Lauren, the fact that I have another child, that I probably didn't do it." She says this ON VIDEO WITH THAT VERY CHILD SHE TALKED ABOUT KILLING HERSELF ALONGSIDE WITH IN THE BACKGROUND, and how she only didn't do it because she had another neurotypical child (this is a bad thing to do and you should not do it). They talk about the missed childhood of their other children because of the autistic child taking up all the time and filling them with fear, removing all happiness from having a child. "I think when you have a child with autism the rate of divorce is like 80 percent" Oh look, its our old friend, an autistic child will ruin your marriage, stories of how the autistic child took up all the time and worsened a marriage ensues, stories of how they felt angry and helpless and how they couldn't do their best for the marriage. This flows into the financial problems oh the financial problems, I love being bankrupted for my own self gain, borrowing all this money to care for a child and how "the $50000 we're in debt it's all about the autism" how they have to take out loans for therapies and foods for the autism. Honestly, I don't feel like I have to go over the rest of it, the rest just goes over the fact that they cant sleep and how their dreams for their children have been ruined, stuff we've all heard before, but I will mention that one of these mothers says retarded, a slur. This is basically just the I am autism ad but its not a creepy voice saying all this stuff, its real people, real mothers of autistic children and if this is the representation we get, id rather not have any, Autism Speaks drives fear around autism so they can bankrupt you (through donations) for their own self gain, out of hope that their child can be saved and their dreams fulfilled.

Anyone reading to the end of this, i will say that this is just part of an essay i wrote that i copied and pasted here so if any formulation seems off for a review thats why but basically it is not good.

44 minutes was long enough

[pigslop · 7/10 · 28 January 2007]

I saw this not knowing very much about autism. After seeing it, I can only say that my heart aches for any parent that has to "suffer the little children" who are afflicted. More than anything else, I wanted so badly to alleviate the non-stop agony and horror that comes with attempting to raise an autistic child. I kept thinking that the parents will NEVER know another day's peace, that their lives are essentially over with. The ending of the film does attempt to give the parents' lives a happier gloss, but I didn't buy it. Still, I have to admit that the point was effectively conveyed in 44 minutes. A couple of hours after watching it, I walked into my house, became quiet and got down upon my knees and thanked god I don't have to deal with autistic children. If you were on the fence about whether or not to begin a family and have children, watch this - it'll go a long way toward cementing your decision.