Chris CollinsHelping Struggling Dealerships Build Profitable, High-Performing Service Departments | Automotive Coaching Expert | CEO

Soundtrack To My Life: Billy Mann & Purple Rain by Prince & The Revolution Pt.2

27 Apr 2025 · 1 min

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0:51

A first-person segment from a YouTube video in which a special-needs father (autism dad) describes the emotional challenges of connecting with his non-verbal autistic son. He contrasts performative expectations of parenting (e.g., asking a child to perform) with the need to follow the child's lead, recounting a concrete strategy—going under the covers with his son to be physically present and allow the child to lead interactions. The passage emphasizes parental responsibility to lead while also listening to the child's cues and the emotional consequences of leadership choices.

Chapters

I'm a special needs dad. I'm an autism dad. I have a son who's no expressive language. The phenomenon of a parent. Little Chris, come and show Uncle Johnny that you can play the guitar or whatever it is. It's very performative. But when you have a child that doesn't have that natural ability and you want to connect with that child, you can't say, hey, come and let's do this. You have to go. You have to go. When I wanted to connect with my. My oldest son, I wasn't connecting with him. And then he would be under the covers sometimes. Then I started going under the covers with him. I would just go under and just be with. And he was leading me. And I think what kids do is that on the one hand, as a parent, your responsibility, you have to lead through those elements. But the organic reciprocity that happens, the reverberations of bad leadership decisions are felt. Yeah. Your constituents are. They're going to tell you what they need and you can't fire them.