This is old advice. In fact, the first time I failed to follow it was almost 14 years ago. Cynthia was pregnant with our son Jonah when I began hyperventilating, consumed with worry, thinking of all the things I’d need to learn to do for the child’s sake – ice skating? Break-dancing?
Now, there’s a different reason the do-it-yourself smugness of Wired is getting to me. Jonah has autism and I don’t have to go any farther than the basement storage closet to survey all the projects we’ve started and abandoned, often after only a day or two.
When you’re the father of a child with special needs, you have to rethink what kind of father you’re going to be. First to go is the notion of being cool. You will lose your cool – many times. Count on it.
Joel Yanofsky tried for years to start this memoir. "It's not just going to be about autism," he told his wife, Cynthia. "It's going to be about parenthood and marriage, about hope and despair, and storytelling, too." 