"Mom! Mommy! Mama! MAAAAA!" On top of that, it does something terrible to my child. It shouts right back, “You AREN’T important to me.” I am telling my child that her needs aren’t a priority. Her concerns are insignificant. I don’t care. Epiphany My eldest child, now in college, unwittingly brought this to my attention recently. She described what she is learning in one of her communications … [Read more...]
Back to School, Back to Uncertainty
Is your shopping done yet? Have you nailed the best deals on all of the supplies on your child’s class list? Is the smell of new athletic shoes and fresh clothing purchases permeating your house yet? While it all sounds so hopeful, if you’re house is anything like ours, there’s a slow, sickening churning of the stomach beginning. Back to school feels as uncertain it does exciting, especially … [Read more...]
7 Tips For Summer Gatherings
Please tell me I am not the only one who cringes with mixed emotions about summer get-togethers! I love the warm weather, time outdoors, and opportunities to connect in a relaxed setting. Still, I know these reunions, weddings, graduation parties, and family picnics will get my children's diagnoses to be noticed in ways I would rather forget. I fight dread anticipating the comments from … [Read more...]
Bitter or Better?
I can remember it like it was yesterday. The sassy, obese mother of a teenage boy on the autism spectrum, sitting there each week as her son’s adaptive aquatics class overlapped with my young son's session -- We would chat on occasion. She was always so snarky, spouting off about her useless husband, her irritating teenagers, and the limitless ways life had done her wrong. I swear there was a … [Read more...]
7 Ways Special Needs Have Made Me a Wealthy Mother
Since I was a little girl, I had a fierce desire to become a mother. I could not necessarily articulate the reasons why I had this burning aspiration within me, but it was relentlessly rooted. I can even recall my classmates laughing at me in second grade when I gave my simple answer to the teacher's what we wanted to be when we grew up inquiry, "I just want to get married some day and be a … [Read more...]
Mom’s Worst Critic
Have you heard her sneering, nasty thoughts? “Can’t get it together!” “Doesn’t do enough for her child!” “Babying him!” “Gosh, no one else complains at the school like that!” “So demanding! So chaotic! What a mess!” “If only those signs weren't missed, there might be a better outcome.” “Oh, my goodness! Should have caught that problem much sooner... Missed some important opportunities... … [Read more...]