Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Perks of having a child (our particular child) with special needs

Because our sense of humor about having a child with special needs keeps us sane:
  • He cannot run. He is pretty fast with what one of his teachers has described as "hurried galumping". Still, chasing him down is not too difficult.
  • He does not know that a big holiday is coming up, let alone one in which he will receive gifts. There has been no begging or pleading for toys.
  • Preschool is free.
  • He does not really say "no". (But he is getting close, and occasionally says something more like the Russian "nyet".)
  • Our doctor prescribes drugs to help him sleep.
  • The toys people give us are usually a bit advanced for him, so we get to savor and enjoy them for a loooooong time before he outgrows them.
  • When I put the crib tent up almost a year ago, some folks told me Quinn would figure out how to escape within a month or so. He's made no escape attempts yet.
  • We do not worry that any of our "bad" parenting (letting him watch too many videos, letting him eat sweets, letting him have lots of totally unstructured, "unenriching" time, etc) will prevent him from being a Rhodes Scholar.

4 comments:

theotherlion said...

I love this! Punkin's favorite toys? Balls from the dollar store and matchbox cars. And the hanging on to toys forever is AWESOME. All the sudden he's not only still playing with the toy, but playing with it the way it was intended; that is an occasion to celebrate with a sugar all by itself!

Anonymous said...

A silver lining indeed! Good for you for being able to rejoice in your child's uniqueness.

Barbara

Vicki Davis said...

This gave me a chuckle! Quinn is such a sweetie! So much there to enjoy and rejoice.

1 Special Family said...

A good sense of humor is necessary for a parent of a child with special needs. What a perfect outlook!