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Category: Current Events
To the Parents of the Alligator Attack at the Grand Floridian,
We have never met but my heart is breaking for you. I am the mom of 2 beautiful children, one who is special needs and underwent open heart surgery. We are big Disney fans, even moved here to be near Disney from NY. My husband and I are parents just like you, this could have been us or any other family on vacation with their little ones. I can’t imagine what you are feeling but as a mom I know you are probably blaming yourselves. You were on vacation in the most magical place on earth, you let your guard down as I have done and hundreds of thousands have done while you are on vacation. I feel like so many people will judge you, hell I even judged you when I first heard about it. My first thought was “where were his parents?”
The more I sat and thought about it and tried to put myself in your place, the more I realized that it could have been me, it could have been anyone. I am so sorry that this horrible thing happened to your beautiful little boy, I am so sorry that your family is suffering. I am so sorry that this happened in the most magical place on earth. You need to be strong for each other and your other children. Be strong and my thoughts and prayers are with you. I am so sorry that this happened to your family.
From,
Another Parent
Gavin McInnes, do you know who he is? I have no idea who the hell he is nor do I care. I saw this video of him on Fox News, comparing Al Sharpton to a retard or a person with Down Syndrome. No sir I don’t think anyone really cares who you are or what you do, but as a special needs mom I care that you used a public platform to spew your ignorance. You should be ashamed of yourself.
I will no longer shop at Sephora. They are carrying a line of lipsticks from Kat Von D and one of the shades is called Celebutard. Celebrity+retard= Celebutard. I am so not laughing. Not even cute, or funny or humane. My daughter has Down Syndrome, and I so hate the use of the R word. It is rude, Kat Von D and Sephora.
I used to love to shop at Sephora and now I am so very disappointed. I will no longer shop in your store, and I will spread the word to others not to shop there. We all deserve an apology and you should remove the product from your shelves immediately Sephora. As for Kat Von D you definitely get an F.
“It’s simple, just make people happy,”words to live by. Zach Sobiech was a young boy who passed away on May 20 from his long fight with osteosarcoma. He turned to music to help him get through his darkest days and wrote a song called Clouds. His message is simple, live your life to it’s fullest, don’t miss out on anything, tell the people you love how much you care, and just make others happy. May God Bless the Sobiech Family and Zach. Watch the video of this wonderful young man and his beautiful family, it will change your life.
I am a special needs mom and I am responding to the article in the NY Post.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/disney_world_srich_kid_outrage_zTBA0xrvZRkIVc1zItXGDP
Dear Rich Entitled Manhattan Moms,
You want to pretend to be a Special Needs mom for the day so that your little darlings don’t have to stand in line at Disney World. You poor poor thing, it must be so hard to have to stand in line for any longer than 5 minutes, it must be so hard to have to discipline your children for more than five minutes while waiting in line, oh and what about the heat and the sun, we wouldn’t want you or your offspring to break a sweat or heaven forbid get a sunburn, I am so sorry you have such a hard life, it truly must be so hard to be you.
If you want that “Special Pass” at Disney I truly believe you should have one, but first there a few requirements I think you should have to complete before you are awarded the “Golden Ticket” as you seem to think it is.
I want you to walk in my shoes, I want you to see what it is like to give birth to a baby, a baby you have wanted for so long, and have them tell you that she has Down Syndrome and if that isn’t bad enough she needs open heart surgery before she is 3 months old or she will die. I want you to know what it’s like to have to drive your baby to the hospital knowing they will cut open her chest and operate on her heart. Sit by her bedside night after night with no sleep praying to any and every God to help your sweet precious baby. You are probably thinking clearly that is enough to earn the ticket, well nope I am sorry you are not quite there yet. You will also be required to visit numerous specialists with your child, for example you will have to bring your child to the cardiologist once a week for a few months, sometimes twice a week, then you will graduate to every two weeks, then once a month, then every 3 months, then every 6 months then finally you will only have to go once a year, and that’s only the cardiologist, there are endocrinologists, pediatricians, Ophthalmologists, Neurologists, just to name a few.
Wait not so fast there is a lot more, you will have to fight with insurance companies and doctors and anyone else who is not being fair to your child. You will have to be your child’s advocate. You will have to always be there, can you do that, can you cancel your fabulous lunch dates, your yoga classes, your shopping sprees, your spa dates. You will be lucky if you have a haircut once a year, so embrace the pony tail it will be your new friend. There will be no time for what you want or need, it is all about your child. So I am sorry but you just might go grey or look unkempt.
I hope you are okay with being stared at because this happens a lot, people will stare at you and your baby, not because they are thinking wow she looks awesome for 36, no it’s because either they feel sorry for you, for your child or they are thankful that they are not you, maybe who knows why they are staring but they do and they do it a lot. Oh there are also the rude comments, you may need to toughen up for this, hope you are able to let things roll off your back because people can be really mean and hurtful.
Oh we are not done yet, get cozy because there is more. I sure hope you had your Wheaties today because now you have to deal with helping your child do all the things that “normal” children do with ease each and every day. Now you have to have all of her therapist appointments, there is Speech because she is almost 2 and still doesn’t talk, then off you go to the Physical Therapist because she’s 2 and she still isn’t walking. Occupational therapy is going to help her too because she is 2 and still can’t feed herself. In between therapies you will do everything all of those therapists have suggested everyday because you are hoping and praying that by the time she is 3 maybe she will do all of these things. Maybe she will walk, feed herself, and say I love you Mom by the time she is 36 months old.
Getting tired, well there is also cooking, cleaning, driving your other children back and forth from school and activities, helping with homework, grocery shopping, Dr appointments, being a good wife, dinner time, bath time, bed time, laundry, etc. Then you get to go to sleep and get up and do it all over again.
Now pay attention, this is the most important part. You are going to worry ALOT, because your child is prone to getting multiple illnesses, and the thought of your child going through anymore hardships is heart breaking.You will never want to send her to school because kids can be cruel and the thought of anyone making her feel bad about herself numbs you.
Okay so here is the really important part, I really hope you have been paying attention. You are going to know true love, you are going to know how to love unconditionally, she is going to teach you things that you never knew about life, about love, about what is important. As soon as you have that feeling, then you may have your special disney pass. Maybe after spending a day in my shoes or any special needs parent’s shoes, you will look differently about what you are doing. Maybe you will be so thankful and happy maybe you will realize how truly lucky you are to have a healthy child.
Yours Truly,
The Mom of a Special Needs Child
My son walked in the door after school today, threw his schoolbag on the floor, everyday I ask him to please pick up his bag and stop leaving it on the floor. Today was different, today I hugged him and kissed him and told him how much I love and appreciate him. There are so many families who will never get to do that again, never get to hug or kiss their children, never help them with their homework, never experience them learning to read, never hear their laughter, never touch their sweet little faces again. My heart aches for those parents, those people who lost someone yesterday in the Newtown Ct, School Masacre. My heart aches for those poor little ones who were so excited to be at school, so excited for the holidays to come, so happy in their safe place, to have that all torn away from them. For the children who survived they too are forever changed, their innocence lost. I am so sad, so upset as a mother, as a former teacher as a human being. My heart aches for those poor parents, I pray that they will get through this most horrific time, I pray that they will find peace, I pray that they will live their lives in honor of their children.
I guess we all will learn something from this, I have learned not to sweat the small stuff anymore, love your kids, love them, hug them, let them know what you love about them, spend time with them, enjoy them, because you just never know, you just never know. God Bless you Newtown, CT!!!!!!
We played the Mega Millions tonight, maybe we will hit the jackpot, wouldn’t that be nice. Over 300 million dollars, I don’t even know what I would do with it all, I probably would give 25% or more of it to St. Jude and Maria Ferreri Hospital, pay off our medical debt. I would donate a large chunk to the Down Syndrome Association. I would pay off my parents’ house for them, help other family, I would help those who have been there for us and helped us, I would buy a house, travel a lot and my kids would be set for life. I would love to go to a homeless shelter and just hand out thousands of dollars, I would love to help everyone. I would take all kinds of lessons, music, art, photography, anything and everything. I would be home with my kids and stop feeling so guilty that I am not earning a paycheck. On a more selfish level I would hire my own personal trainer and chef to help me lose this weight once and for all. It would be nice to know that we will be able to spend lots of time together as a family and not have to worry. Dream a little dream.
What would you do with $300,000,000?
A young girl took her life because of bullying. This is happening way too much today and something needs to be done. Reading about such a horrible tragedy got me thinking about my own childhood and how badly I was teased. I was a chubby kid, cute chubby nothing crazy since I was about 5 years old and I remember being so excited to start Kindergarten. I was one of the tallest girls in my class and never thought about my body image or anything like that then it happened. I walked into the brightly colored classroom where my teacher stood smiling from ear to ear, I was going to love this place, I knew it. Then like a deflated balloon the happieness was sucked right out of my little 5 year old heart when the little girl sitting next to me said I was going to need a bigger chair because I was too big to sit in the little chair with my name sticker on it, now mind you I was not that much bigger than her, maybe 5 pounds heavier and my world just came crashing in on me by one idiotic comment by a 5 year old. I remember be afraid to sit in the chair, afraid I would break it and when the teacher asked me what was wrong why wasn’t I sitting down, I told her the chair wasn’t big enough for me, she said oh don’t be silly it is just the right size for a little girl like you and I sat down. Even though the chair ended up being too big for me, the instant questioning and loathing my body started on that very day in September 1983.
From that day on I was constantly being picked at and teased about my weight from other kids and even my own adult family members. There was something wrong with me, I was probably about 10-15 lbs overweight as a kid and I always felt HUGE. Teachers pointed it out to me in gym class, a gym teacher told me he would have to hold my ankles because I would never be able to do a sit up by myself, I actually could do them quite fine thank you very much. It was little digs like this here and there that would eat away at my confidence until by the time I was 18 there was nothing left.
By this time I had tried every diet known to man, from Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, starving myself so bad that I passed out on vacation with my family one year.
I hated my body and I look back at pictures of myself from that time and I realize how great I looked if I just could have seen it then, if I just could have loved myself. I would try to ride my bike in the neighborhood and there were a brother and sister who would sit on the stoop of their house and wait for me to pass by, I was only allowed to go around the block and I would circle the block about 10 times and every time I passed by “Hey Fatty, hey chubby, hey fat ass.” they would shout at me. I still rode my bike all summer but it got so bad that once I got to the corner of their street I would turn around and go back the other way so I wouldn’t have to endure the taunting anymore.
So if other people hated my body of course I was going to hate it, so after all the abuse of yo-yo dieting I have done to my body it has rebelled against me, it is so hard for me to lose weight now. It took me a long time to gain any kind of confidence in myself, I am still lacking confidence at 35 years old, I will go to the gym and feel like I am going to get laughed at, stared at, made fun of. I was teased for probably 12 years of my life, I won’t even get into it all, it would take 20 blog posts to get through it all. I don’t think kids understand what a horrible impact they can have on someone’s life. I must say that as bad as it got never ever did I think of taking my own life. I never want my children to have to go through any of this no one has the right to make you feel bad about yourself. Please, please talk to your kids, stop the cycle now, stop bullying.
