Every weekday, Monday through Friday, the About.com Parenting Special Needs site offers an opportunity to read, reflect, and respond to a passage from a book, blog, or article. Here are the entries for May, 2009. Read the quote, then follow the link for questions and response suggestions.
< April 2009 | June 2009 >
Friday, May 29: Rewards
Read: "It's often said that rearing a happy, healthy, well adjusted child is one of the most demanding and challenging of all human endeavors. Fortunately, it's also the most rewarding." -- from The American Academy of Pediatrics Guide to Your Child's SymptomsThursday, May 28: Experts
Read: "I was a wonderful parent before I had children. I was an expert on why everyone else was having problems with theirs. Then I had three of my own. Living with real children can be humbling." -- Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will TalkWednesday, May 27: Individuality
Read: "Your children are not you. They are their own people. Its one of those lessons you have to learn on your own, no one can tell you (no matter how many times they tell you)." -- JoeyMom, Life With JoeyTuesday, May 26: Long Road
Read: "It's not a race: We're all on this long road together, and some will get to certain points much more quickly, and with fewer obstacles---mud puddles, bends in the road with signs that make no sense, hills and rocks and poison ivy, mini-ditches you sometimes only see after you're in them and your shoe is wet down to the sock." -- Kristina Chew, Autism - Change.org
Monday, May 25: It Is What It Is
Read: "I don't hate autism, but I do not love it either. I'm at that point where matter-of-factness meets autism acceptance. I accept it, I'm ok with it, but I don't tout it as the best thing to ever happen to us. It is what it is. We go day to day. Sometimes it's great, sometimes not. Sometimes smelly, sometimes amazing." -- Amber, Don't Bite the DogFriday, May 22: Frustrations
Read: "Some days I am not in the mood for comparisons to others' 'typical' children, which makes my 'mama bear instinct' surface (a mama bear with claws displayed protecting her cub). I feel guilty about my reactions, anger, and frustrations, but at the same time, I feel that it is normal to have 'off' days." -- bizzum, Hope for ElijahThursday, May 21: Shame
Read: "Even though I accepted the autism diagnosis from the beginning, I didn’t understand all the ways it affected Nigel -- the pervasive nature of it -- for many years. I’m still learning. I still get frustrated with him. I understand so much more now, but I’m ashamed of my reactions before I understood, when I expected him to do or say things that he wasn’t able to." -- Tanya Savko, Teen AutismWednesday, May 20: Coming Far
Read: "We need to make sure that kids who might start out with 'issues' and, yes, 'problems' have every chance they can to show us just how much they can do, and how far they can come." -- Kristina Chew, Autism - Change.org
Tuesday, May 19: Acceptance
Read: "But silently, my mind explodes when I try to walk the line between being a parent of a child with a label, attempting to defend against that, seeking acceptance for my child and yet not wanting to be treated 'differently'; and being a parent of a child who fits in beautifully, thus showing me what it is like to be on the 'inside' socially, and how those kids with labels look from that perspective." -- Karianna, Silicon Valley Moms Blog
