Guest blogger and special needs dad, Scott Newport, sent a piece he wrote a few years ago. See what you think of Scott’s 12 signs you might be a special needs parent.
12 Signs You Might Be a Special Needs Parent
- When you are in a public setting and everyone is staring and whispering about you but no one comes over to ask for an autograph.
- When you are at the pharmacy counter and the guy next to you figures you must be related to the pharmacist.
- When you arrive at the neighborhood park and immediately everyone becomes overly gracious and gives your family sole right to the play structure.
- When others used to give you the “guilty eye” about sitting in the back row at church, but now they are happy you sit there. In fact they have a designated area just for you and your child.
- When only those under the age of four don’t look at you with that quizzical look.
- When you finally figure out you have become a stranger in your own community- the community you grew up in.
- When you are asked to interpret a foreign language spoken by your child that was never taught in a place of higher education.
- When your typical child has a birthday party and instead of passing out squirt guns, you pass out 60 cc syringes.
- When after tube feeding your child, your wife asks how you liked your breakfast. Then laughing, she informs you that we had run out of milk and the pancakes were made with your child;s special medical formula.
- When you feel Head Bangers would not be a good name for a pop band. Trust me the sound is irritating and isn’t sweet music.
- When you use to go to PTA meetings the parents were the majority and now you go to IEP meetings where you are the minority.
- When the above list of traits might have offended you in the past and now you can’t stop laughing.
Don’t feel bad if you cried at a couple. I did too.
Scott (Evan’s dad)
Can We Get to 24 Signs You May Be a Special Needs Parent?
Did the list make you laugh? Cry? Both? Did you think of a few more reasons to add to the list? If so, leave a comment. Maybe we can double the list to 24!
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enjoy the laughter and the tears. . .
a child vomiting 30 times every day for 3 years straight is just referred to as normal development
being told “just do this twice a day” even when every increment of 30 minutes all day is already accounted for medically
When your child staring at you sniffing you or trying to bite your nose to get your attention are normal every day things
when 200 days plus at the hospital a year make it the happy somewhat altered reality in your life
when you have not had a full night of sleep in almost 17 years
when taking a walk alone for the first time in 4 years is the best Christmas gift in the world
when peace means no challenges for just one day
when doctors don’t shock you anymore and know to hand you chocolate before the bad news
when half and quarter birthdays are celebrated
when taking 40 meds a day is a drop in the hat to keep straight
when your child needs help with almost all adl’s but can remember every phillies statistic
when wrinkles are a sign of wisdom
when another day of your childs life is a gift from heaven
when a friend takes the time to make life bearable again by sharing the different dream
When 20 diagnosis don’t cause you to panic
when there is no more panic just new normals always new normals
when 24/7 means literally 24/7
when a hug and a kiss are the symbols of deep unbridled love between a mom and a child that have been taken to the edge of life and back again repeatedly with medical emergencies
when you watch the younger moms and dads and wonder how you have managed to never give up hope
when growing up means sleeping in another room. . . even if it doesn’t happen until the late teens
when puberty starts after 20
when the van is not big enough to carry all the medical equipment
when your child is willing to play baseball dragging around an oxygen tank
when you start drawing the line about quality of life issues – phillies parades cannot be watched on tv in the hospital and trips to the beach happen straight out of the ER at 7am. . just for the fun of it
you can’t imagine what it is like to have a normal life ever again because what you are doing is your normal life