a bit more about what you’ve stumbled upon
First off, hello. You are welcome here. Stay as long as you like: dip in and dip out. That's what I'm here for. Likelihood is you have been trawling the internet late at night searching for someone like you who has been there, done that and can hold your hand through the storms of special needs parenting. And now you've found me.
I want to be upfront though.
I write only what I know.
If you’re a parent of a teenager/adult with special needs and you find all this talk of coping with special needs parenting alongside raising young children irrelevant to your specific situation then write what you know and put it out there too. I am looking forward to following your story when my children are older.
If you’re a sibling, grandparent, carer or friend, you are more valuable than you know. Please stick around and learn too and who knows, maybe you have a lot to say and I’ll be reading your posts one day.
If you are offended that I’ve put us all together under one umbrella term of ‘special needs parents’ and wonder how I can possibly cover all bases because every child’s special needs are so very different, the answer is, I can’t. I write only what I know and I happen to know a fair bit about Angelman Syndrome. It’s up to you to take as much or as little as you want.
“I want to show you how there IS life beyond diagnosis, perhaps not the life you had imagined but there is so much life still for you to live... and with a smile on your face too. ”
If you don’t like the term ‘special needs’ and you would rather I use a different phrase then find a way to deal with it before you read on. Spoiler alert: I use the term ‘special needs’ roughly a million times.
Whether you have a feeling that something is just not quite right, your child is freshly diagnosed or you're a seasoned old hat at this special needs parenthood lark, I'm here to stand shoulder to shoulder with you and tell you that you can totally do this. Overwhelmed is the name of the game when you are hit with a diagnosis but it doesn't have to stay that way. I figured that with the seven years I have under my belt as a special needs mum I’ve learned a fair bit along the way so... why not share it? My aim is to help you avoid getting so overwhelmed with it all that you feel burned out, stressed up to your eyeballs and find yourself crying in a heap at the end of each day. I want to show you how there IS life beyond diagnosis, perhaps not the life you had imagined but there is so much life still for you to live... and with a smile on your face too.
I learned a lot of what I want to share with you the hard way but the great thing is, you don't have to. I'm looking forward to sharing with you many a hilarious and heartbreaking error along the way. So, make yourself a brew, dig in and let's smash this special needs parenting lark together.