I’ve got a new guest post up today at DifferentDream.com about the guilt that special needs parents (and especially moms) have – it’s similar to the guilt that all moms have, but more intense because our children’s needs are more intense. We blame ourself for our children’s condition, or we feel guilty when we don’t push our child to do enough of his or her therapy “homework”. The post begins:
Eleven years ago, when my daughter, Sarah Kate, was born ten weeks premature, I blamed myself. A year later, when she was diagnosed with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, I blamed myself. Six years after that, when my son, Nathan, was born with Down syndrome, I blamed myself.
I’m not blaming myself anymore.
It’s not because I don’t think I could have done things differently, and it’s not because I’ve found someone else to blame. Things could have gone differently, resulting in different outcomes, but they didn’t, and our life as a family with two children with special needs (and no typical ones) is enough.
