I'll be back next week, but in the meantime I'll leave you with another quote from the awesome Changed by a Child: Companion Notes for Parents of a Child with a Disability by Barbara Gill. This one's from the essay on compromise.
Two things tempt us as parents to put the needs of the child with the disability ahead of our own or those of other family members. One is the anxiety and guilt that push us to do everything possible for this kid. The other is that the
things we do for our child are prescribed and are often monitored by professionals. Each time the physical therapist comes, she asks whether we've been doing the range of motion exercises, but no one comes by to check whether Mom and Dad have been out to dinner lately, or whether our three-year-old is getting her bedtime story every night.
3 comments:
This is exactly why I love our pediatrician. He always asks how I am doing. When I said that I had not given Nonami a bottle he stopped and talked to me about how I was feeling keeping up with the demands of strictly breastfeeding via breasts.
Too many people overlook the caregivers of the children. How we are feeling directly effects how we treat the children so it would seem that taking the time to ask would be automatic.
Ach ccw, I could have used a pede (or anybody) like that when the monsters were small...
CCW, good pediatrician!
Camera, I often said that Ellie's therapists were more *my* therapists than hers in the early months . . .
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