RAISING children is supposed to be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding of life's achievements. Wong Ng Lai-ying is yet to savour such delights and instead endures the strains social stigma of a son who is autistic and mildly mentally-retarded. Mrs Wong lives with her husband and sons, Kam-tong, five, and Kam-tim, three, in Tuen Mun. 'Kam-tong, like other children with autism, brims with vigour. He consumes my energy. Sometimes, he runs around the house yelling so much that I have to wrestle him to the floor to calm him down,' she said. At the same time, Kam-tim is very demanding. 'I have to keep my eyes on them from the time they get up at 7 am until they go to bed at 11 pm. And that's every day, seven days a week,' she said. When they take a nap in the afternoon, she does the housework. 'I was over-stretched looking after them. I was living in fear they would have an accident. 'They almost drive me crazy,' she said. Her husband was unable to relieve the strain as he had to work at least 12 hours a day as a truck driver and sometimes had to be away running goods into China. A year ago, the family turned to the Hong Kong Society for Protection of Children for help. Kam-tim now attends the society's Butterfly Estate Day Nursery and Kam-tong goes to nearby special school at weekends. This has enabled Mrs Wong to take a part-time job in a factory so that she can make friends and take a break from the family. Soon there will be a new challenge as she is expecting another child. She hoped the society would open a creche in Tuen Mun so she could send her baby there. 'Otherwise, I might send the baby to China where my sister-in-law can take care of it. I don't want to undergo such hard times again,' she said.