Scripts for the Store: Quick, Kind Responses to Common Comments About Your Autistic Child to Get Strangers to Shut Up

You’re just trying to survive a grocery run, maybe juggling bananas, a meltdown, and a granola bar bribe, when someone drops that line:

“He doesn’t look autistic.”

Cue the internal scream.

In this episode of The Be Mighty Mom Podcast, we’re talking about the real-life moments that test your patience, push your buttons, and sometimes break your heart, and how to meet them with grace, power, and yes, a little bit of sass. Host Ash shares ready-to-use scripts for those awkward, judgmental, or just plain ignorant comments so many autism families face in public.

With a mix of advocacy, humor, and real talk; backed by data and lived experience, you’ll walk away from this episode with practical responses you can actually remember in the moment. Whether the comment comes from a stranger, a teacher, or your well-meaning aunt, you’ll feel more prepared, more grounded, and a whole lot less alone.

Because sometimes advocacy sounds like a TED Talk… and sometimes it sounds like:

“There’s no one way to look autistic, just like there’s no one way to be rude in a grocery store.”

Let’s rise, roar, and rewrite the script.