Read: "Why is it my job to educate every person who asks about my kids simply because they're 'interested'? Why does a stranger's interest in my children's special needs usurp my right to privacy (not to mention my children's)? Why is it okay for someone to say, 'I couldn't help but notice your child has a tube coming from his stomach and I was wondering, what's it for?' And, moreover, why am I expected to smile sweetly and educate that person?" -- Kate, Life With Special Needs Kids
Read: "I think asking Joey to change and 'be like everyone else' is unreasonable and undesirable. However, leaving him to the wolves to fend for himself against kids who have never dealt with a disabled peer is also not fair -- not to Joey, and not to the other child. After all, when they ostracize Joey, they miss having a cool friend! Though I don't want Joey labeled and seen only for his autism, I don't want him to be excluded by his peers because of ignorance if I can help it." -- Joeymom,
Life With Joey Read: "I want people to know you and like you for who you are and not think you are different from them. I do want people to understand you and know what it is like to have a disability. You are special just like every other person." --
Connor Gordon, winner of the
"ARTHUR/All Kids Can Character Search," offering a message to kids with special needs
Read: "There are supposed to be differences in our society, it’s what makes our culture rich. Who gets to decide the differences that are ok and those that should be eliminated or what’s acceptable and what’s not. Who is to say it won’t be your kid? Who is to say it won’t be mine?" -- Kyron Arambula,
The Special Parent Read: "Laziness is not an innate trait. We all are born with a drive to produce, and like saplings growing in an orchard, we have within us the resources to bear fruit, to be and to feel useful and effective." -- Dr. Mel Levine,
The Myth of Laziness Read: "You cannot tell your other children to be more human than you are. You cannot model one set of behaviors as parents, and then get upset if your children do the same. You must acknowledge that they experience the same frustration and anger that you experience." -- Larry B. Silver, MD,
The Misunderstood Child: Understanding and Coping with Your Child's Learning Disabilities Read: "As one father said, 'Things were different when I was a boy. My son's room has a color TV, a VCR, a CD player, and his own telephone. Now when I punish him, I have to send him to
my room.'" -- Jamie C. Miller,
10-Minute Life Lessons for Kids Read: "Parenting involves reliving your own childhood. It is inevitable that you will replay events of your own childhood with your children. You will basically treat your children the way you were treated. It is the only reference you have and you have thoroughly incorporated it into your behavior." -- Gloria Loring,
Parenting a Child with Diabetes Read: "Authors of popular parenting books contradict each other:
Take charge of your family insists one;
Celebrate your child's inner spirit, asserts another;
Turn off the TV! shouts a third. Which one to listen to? A parent has to wonder." -- Karen A. Smith and Karen R. Gouze,
The Sensory-Sensitive Child Read: "Parents sometimes ask, 'Is it better to have a long fuse or a short fuse?' I tell them, 'It's better not to be a bomb at all.' Wherever your exploding point, your child will find it." -- Bob Lancer,
Parenting with Love...Without Anger or Stress Read: "One of the things that's different about women is that we need to share our feelings. It's such a sense of loneliness when you're dealing with this, and you need to share that with someone." -- Jayne D.B. Marsh,
From the Heart
