Autism

Let me explain. So, we all know these For Dummies books, right? Like Cooking For Dummies, Calculus For Dummies, Microsoft Office For Dummies, Chess for Dummies, etc.

Well, when I was nine years old, a Hispanic man who was a family friend, gifted me this Spanish For Dummies book. Because I was nine and literally the only Spanish I knew was the basic spanish words I picked up from watching Dora and Diego on Nick Jr. So I knew how to say "¡Hola! ¿Como estas usted?" and count to ten in Spanish but that was basically it.

So the man gifted me this book in hopes it could help me learn more about Spanish.

So I told him "Thank you, gracias", but then I saw the title of the book: Spanish For Dummies.

Nine year old me was confused. "Dummies"? I asked, "But I am not a dummy". I never heard of these kinds of books before now, and I seriously thought he was trying to subtly but also not-so-subtly tell me he thought I was stupid.

But the man and my mom said to me "Wait no, that's not what that means!"

But I was still confused. "Why are you giving me a book for Dummies? Do you think I'm dumb"? And I was sincerely offended.

And the man said to my mom "I am so sorry, I didn't expect this to be her reaction. I thought she would be happy."

But my mom responded "Come to think of it, I don't think she's ever heard of these books, so she may just be confused . I'll keep the book and maybe let's just wait until she's a little older".

So after the man left, my mom asked me "You've never heard of the For Dummies books, have you?"

And I was shocked: "BOOKS‽You mean to tell me there are more books like these calling people stupid??"

And then my mom chuckled and said to me "No, they're not actually calling you stupid. 'For Dummies' is just meant to be a tongue-in-cheek, sorta playful way of saying that these books can help you learn more about whatever topic you want to learn about, and it's so easy to understand that you can have zero prior knowledge and this book can help you. So like, you go in as a dummy, so to speak. The title is meant to be a joke."

So yeah, I didn't get diagnosed with ADHD til a year later when I was 10, and then it took til i was 19 to get my autism diagnosis but I feel like this book could have served as a sign that "my brain isn't quite like others".

But anyone else used to find these books offensive?