What is up Waffle gang? I do hope you are well. My name is Mark and today we're checking

at some more a slash am I the butthole. I got no initial waffle to say today so I just want to say

a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for being involved with the channel. You're truly

making dreams come true and much love to you. Let's get into it.

Now this first story comes from Autistic Mem.

I'm I the asshole for prioritizing my autistic child's needs over those of guests.

We're a family of four, 34 female, 36 male, 9 male and 7 female.

My daughter 7 female is non-verbal autistic. We have been struggling with

meal times and eating with her for as long as I can remember. She cannot cope with change and

uncertainty and is prone to meltdowns when she gets overwhelmed. We instigated a number of strict

rules and planning around meal times a year or two ago to help her cope which are working.

Essentially, all the family are involved in meal planning at the end of the week before

and we have a set meal time with no food substitutions.

Everyone attends meals but no one is expected to eat if they don't want to.

We spend time with visual charts preparing my daughter in advance of what is going to happen.

Since we have had the system in place, our daughter is more freely trying new foods, and both my

children are more settled since these rules have been in place. It's a lot more relaxing for everyone

to eat without the meltdowns we have before. The problems have come with when we have

additional people for dinner. We do not make any allowances for changes to these rules around eating.

The one time we did make an exception, a friend of my son brought his own food and he did not like what was planned,

resulted in a meltdown in my daughter and took us several weeks to get her back on track with their eating.

We now let people who are visiting know the rules

...