We have reasons to be hopeful.

I have to give you a little background first.  A reader on my blog questioned the way I was dealing with my son’s sensory superpowers.  See, Jack is on the overwhelmed side of the senses.  He’s bothered by a whole host of sounds, movement, and visual things.  Like dresses, zippers, seatbelts, snow, rain, salad spinners, flashing lights, flash photography, candles, people talking, printers.  You know.  Things we’re likely to run into every day.  So the other day, a fellow parent commented on my blog that I was overprotecting my son.  She thought that I should make Jack say hello to a girl we encountered in a waiting room.  Because he needs to have manners.  Manners are important to her.  Letting Jack get comfortable and interact with people at his own pace is important to me.

Yes, our kids our different from each other.  Different severities, different symptoms, different effects.  We choose strategies we think might work.  We try others and reject them when they don’t work.  But sometimes, we see this.   Moms judging other moms.  Parents coming down hard on other parents.     

And sometimes we see worse.  Teachers who don’t understand our kids.  Doctors who don’t believe us.  Family members who dismiss our explanation.  Kids who tease our kids.

BUT, but , but … HERE’s what I wanted to show you.  During the heated discussion, I received this note about Jack’s sensory difficulties:

Honestly, I think it unfair of her to judge you so harshly when she doesn’t know you. And just because you have a different method of parenting then her, she shouldn’t think you’re parenting isn’t good. There’s no perfect parenting for ALL children, each child needs to be parented in a different way, it’s all depending upon the child, and she doesn’t know YOUR child, so I don’t think it fair for her to judge. Like how she says “Her child seems way too bright- even at 5 – to not be able to say “Hello” to someone.”, just because he was too overwhelmed in that situation to want to say “Hello” to someone, it’s not that he doesn’t have the mental ability to greet anyone, or even that person in particular, he was just overwhelmed, like if someone spun you in circles, screamed and blew an air horn in your ear,and hit you in the head with a metal pan, then tried to make you read and decipher a novel that’s written in German. It’s too much. And about teaching manners? Is that ALL she has to worry about? MANNERS? I don’t think manners is a main priority right now. It’s not like he’s impolite. He’s a wonderful little boy, and she should know that.

The writer is twelve years old.  TWELVE.  My eyes lit up.  My heart swelled.  ‘Cause guess what?  Our kids are growing up with kids just like this one.

Imagine if the world thought like this.  Imagine if every time we share our stories, one more person gets it. That the kids growing up with our kids embrace them like this.  That the world will understand our children.

Rock on, twelve-year-olds of the world.  Rock on.

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