It usually hits me at 2 a.m. I'll be lying in bed after an ordinary day, nothing dramatic, just the usual routines and small moments that make up our life together, and then the thought slips in, uninvited: Who will take care of my child with autism when I'm gone? If you're a parent raising a child with autism or other special needs, I think you know this fear. It doesn't feel dramatic when it happens. It just feels quiet and heavy, like something you're not supposed to say o

One of the most common topics I see in Autism-related forums here in the Philippines is this: what should actually be written on our child's Person With Disability ID (PWD ID)? Our kids may all share the same diagnosis — Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) — but the classification printed on their IDs can vary widely. Depending on the city, the doctor, or the assessing office, you might see any of these: These are the common classifications: Autism Intellectual Disability Mental D

My son is 14. He's tall now, has opinions about his hair, and can hold a conversation about his favorite people for twenty minutes straight. And we are still, patiently, working on WH questions for autism, specifically the one that trips us up the most: why. Who. What. Where. When. Why. How. Most people assume these are "little kid" skills, something you master in kindergarten and never think about again. For a lot of our kids, that's not how it goes. And if you're a parent w

Real estate is one of the most talked-about ways to build wealth, and it's a dream a lot of us grow up with: "bumili ng lupa," "magpatayo ng apartment," "magkaroon ng pangalawang bahay na paparentahan." But between rising property prices, loan requirements, and simply not knowing where to start, that dream can feel out of reach. To help make sense of it, I want to share this excellent video from Graham Stephan, "How To Buy Your First Rental Property (Step by Step)." I've embe