Since working with Financial Wellbeing, I am amazed at how many wonderful, positive people I have met. We had workshops in the last few months in Cork, Donegal, Wicklow, Limerick & Dublin and as part of our workshop I phone people who have attended the workshop and it never ceases to amaze me how positive parents are. I sometimes wish the world would take notice, of these people.
These parents are you.
One of my mantras in life is never to assume anything, and I know that when some people hear I have a child with additional needs they automatically think that life is sad, and can say, (not intentionally,) awful things, why? Because they don’t understand, that this is my Son and I feel the same way about him as you do about yours and that’s that.
I sometimes question people and some therapists and ask what do you see when you see David, do you see his blue eyes, hear his laughter or see his disability’s or ability’s.
You have to be true to yourself as you listen to so much advice from so many people but like the proverb goes “Accept the things you cannot change and change the things you can” Look at how many people there are in Ireland with so called disabilities, where are they in society, I want to see more of them out in restaurants, at concerts, in the public. There our children, and let them be seen for who they are.
Because in my eyes they are perfect.
If we were all the same, what a boring world it would be. Give me David (my son) any day. I also love a complexed mind. I feel we are the boring ones here. For example: we go into a restaurant and we behave a certain way, speak appropriately, dress correctly and that is what is expected of us and we condition our children to do the same. But try to put yourself in the mind/brain of a child who is more complexed than us. What’s going on there?
From all the workshops we have given and all the parent I have met, not one of them has come up to me with a sad story, they look for the child’s ability and tell me how wonderful their son or daughter is, they tell me the plans they want for him/her in the future. It’s a hard area to look into planning for the future. But everyone plans. We plan for Christmas, we plan for our summer holidays, we plan for the weekend, and these parents I meet plan for the future of their children. Then it’s easier to start living and enjoying the moment and let Allan do the future trust planning for you, all you have done is taken a positive step in the right direction.
Every childhood lasts a lifetime.