Mum Of Boy With Autism Writes Open Letter To Man Who Called Son A 'Sissy' During His Haircut
Mum Pens Candid Response To Man Who Called Her Son With Autism A 'Sissy'
Amy Packham— The Huffington Post UK
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A mum who has a son with autism has written an open letter to the man called her boy a "sissy".
In a blog post on The Mighty, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu explained it was her son's fifth birthday and she was taking him to get a birthday haircut.
As they had to go to a new barber, Onaiwu's son wanted to sit on her lap for the duration.
Unfortunately, the haircut didn't go to plan.
This wasn't because of the barber, but because a customer, who Onaiwu named "Mr. Ableist Sexist Jerk, or Mr. ASJ", hurled hurtful comments at the young boy during his haircut.
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These included: "Stop acting like a sissy. Only sissies cry for no reason. Haircuts don’t hurt" and "Are you a little boy? I don’t think so. Maybe you’re a little girl. Because a boy wouldn’t be crying like that. I think you must be a girl, huh?".
The man continued hurling abuse even after the barber asked the rude customer to stop and told him the child had autism.
Because Onaiwu was busy comforting her crying son, she didn't confront the man so she took to her blog post to write exactly what she wished to say to him.
Among her comments, she wrote: "My son is autistic. He has a disability, and he was crying because haircuts are difficult for him.
"Instead of you being sensitive to him like every other person in the shop was, you made it worse. I’ll have you know that calling my child a 'mama’s boy' isn’t the insult you meant it to be.
"I am his mama, and I’m proud to have my boy’s back all day every day.
"You know what a real man knows? He knows that to call an autistic boy a sissy is the height of disrespect. It’s rude (and homophobic, for that matter) to call any boy a 'sissy'."
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