Pragmatic choices of what is important and possible

[ Master thesis about fathers to a child with autism ]

To have a child with autism is a continuing and constantly changing process of experience. The fathers collect experiences along the way with this different family-life, which did not turn out as they expected it  to. They live a pressured and unpredictable daily life, of which they use metaphors such as “war zone” and “marathon”. They often have to take one day at a time, and in periods of their life one can argue, that it is more survival than actually collecting experience.
It is very important for the fathers to be a good father. They all place a high value on children and family. Although they fulfill the role as a father in the Danish societal sense, it shows that the choices they make through the process, and what they value in proportion to being a good father, is very different. The analysis shows, that their road is shaped by pragmatic choices of what is important and possible.