Raising Autistic Boy/Girl Twins with Chris Decent – Podcast 302
Episode 302 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Chris Decent, father of boy/girl twins. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: Older sibling’s concerns transforming into wonderful big sister Going through multiple failed adoptions before getting the twins When one twin spent 4 months in the NICU Selling their home right away after birth to move closer to the hospital Deciding to have Mom stay home with the kids Discovered about autism after twins were missing milestones Having each child at different levels developmentally Getting special needs children into school that matches their needs A child’s tantrum vs autism meltdown Sleep challenges with twins When twins don’t look alike and more… Connect with Chris via email for any questions about ASD. Podcast Transcript This is transcript auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes. Today, I’d like to welcome to the show Father of Twins, Chris Decent. Welcome to the show, Chris. Thanks for having me, Joe. Chris, how old are your twins right now? What’s something exciting about this age? They will be six in about a month at the end of February. And I think what’s most exciting right now is just seeing how they get interested in things, whether it’s trains or cuckoo clocks, which my son is currently in love with. Just kind of seeing how their brains work and what is most interesting to them. That’s fun to watch them. And you’re into like, they’re turning into little humans and they have different interests and stuff. That’s pretty exciting. Feel like we’ve been in the survival phase for a while now. My twins both have some special needs that we’ll talk about a little bit today. So that’s been another thing that’s been interesting is although they’re twins, my daughter is developmentally probably about a year behind my son . So in some ways, it feels like déjà vu. We keep going Groundhog Day, going through the same things, but it’s been quite a wild ride. Are they your only children? I also have an 18-year-old who’s a freshman at Mississippi State. Fantastic. So that’s Bulldogs, right? That’s right. And she’s the best big sister ever. Part of our story is that we actually adopted the twins at birth. And my 18-year-old set up an Instagram account for them that’s called Decent Double Trouble . And it really just kind of is a way to follow their story and all the things that they’ve been through in the last six years. So her name is Claire, and she’s the best big sister anyone could hope for. Great. It’s always good to have an extra pair of helping hands, especially when they’re like, she was obviously old enough to help when the twins came home. She was. She doesn’t live with us full time, but she’s here all the time. And, you know, it’s interesting too, as part of our journey that, when Claire was writing her essays to get into Mississippi state, she was awarded a very prestigious scholarship at Mississippi state. What she wrote about is the twins and how her life has changed. And I’ll never forget the opening line to her scholarship essay. It starts by saying, “Will I get enough presents? Will I have to share my room?” Those are the first thoughts that went through her head when I called to tell her that she now had a brother and sister. And she just talks about how she was a little bit selfish as a 12 or 13-year-old kid and how the last 5 and 1/2, 6 years have really changed her world and how Cooper and Scarlett have really changed her view of the world. And as a dad, there’s nothing that warms my heart more. That’s great. That’s great to see her evolve in that phase as a big sister. I know we have two boys, we had two boys before our twins were born, but they were too young to express what you just said Claire expressed to you, right? They were surely thinking something like, am I still going to get attention? Am I still going to get everything they need? But they couldn’t articulate that.