Sometimes, at the end of the day, while lying in bed, I think about my day and what the hardest part was. Many of you will instantly think that the toughest part had something to do with parenting our special needs child. It isn’t. He actually, on many days, is the easiest.
The hardest part of many of my days, is the managing and dealing with other people. People who really aren’t deserving of so much of my energy. These people many times are strangers, but sometimes they’re our family or friends. They say or do things that have us immediately think we are doing something wrong and are bad parents.
It may be the ones who stare or giggle when my son laughs out loud or spins while playing with his electronic devices. He always walks with headphones on, as you can see in this picture. It is one of the ways he can manage his sensory issues.
It may be the receptionist at the office who hasn’t been trained on how to make someone with special needs feel at ease when they come to the office.
Maybe it is someone on our son’s educational team that isn’t really a team player.
Sometimes, it is an acquaintance that offers parenting tips on what we should do for our child “misbehaving”.
My point is, so often, my energy is spent dealing with all of my emotions from people that I don’t know, that I am not raising and that shouldn’t be able to take up so much of my time.
What do we do? What is the answer?
We pride ourselves in being their voice, being an advocate and knowing what to do. Sometimes, I just don’t know.
Many times, I just walk away. Take my son’s hand and hope he did not pick up on the ignorance thrown our way. Sometimes, I cannot just walk away, so I will try to do a moment of education. That isn’t always easy as many of you know, we become so heated that our words cannot get out with the most finesse.
I have yet to master this and am working on it every day.
I write this, unfortunately not with the solution, but to let you know that you are not alone and to ask for your suggestions as well. My motto is that together, we are stronger and together we will educate others making the road easier for our children as well as ourselves.
My hope is for a gentler world where others are tuned and can try a little harder to understand.