The feel good factor

When I made the decision to start blogging about my youngest daughter, I also made the decision to try and focus on the more light hearted side of things.  Having been a visitor to hell and back more times than I would care to remember in those early dark days, I wanted to put that part behind us and concentrate on how far the Dancing Queen has come.  And I guess also focus on how much she has taught me on the way.

However today I read the blog of a parent with a child with severe autism who was essentially saying that he was fed up with people sending him feel good stories about autism.  It’s not often that I come out swinging on this particular topic, but I must admit that the article rankled me.

Fairly early on along the parenthood route, I began to get a better understanding of that huge divide between woman with children and woman without which until then had seemed unfathomable.  Then I worked out there were equally significant chasms between working mothers and non working mothers, as well as mothers of single children and those that had multiple.  After that I worked out the gap (possibly the greatest of them all) between mothers with children that fall into society's "normal" parameters and those that have children with special needs of whatever description. 

What I would hate to think however, is that there also exists a vast partition depending on where your child falls on the spectrum.  I know without any doubt that we are one of the lucky ones and for that I am eternally grateful.  I have a beautiful and very special daughter who will be one of my greatest teachers. And yes sometimes when I read the really heart wrenching stories, I feel guilty.  The last thing I want to do is to rub it in anyone's face.  But at the same time, hope is our most valuable commodity.  We have come so far already, why can I not unashamedly believe that hope and complete faith in my child will help her go even further?

As a parent of a mildly autistic child, I know I have limited understanding of the heartache that parents raising children at the other end of the spectrum are going through.  But that's not to say that we are not without any of that pain. I have a seven old that hates her brain because she has already worked that it is different from her peers.  I am lucky that she is able to express her feelings but at the same time that in itself in this context represents a significant challenge, and as a mother it is one that pulls at every single heart string.

So for now I am going to continue to focus on the plus side of things to the best of my abilities.  And if I do offend or upset any parents out there, my apologies in advance because it will never be my intent to.  My hat is permanently off to all parents raising any child of any description.