You don’t ever completely forget.
It’s part of who your child is.
It’s always there.
But sometimes, you get lulled into this comfort zone where it’s just not that big of a deal.
When your child is only surrounded by people he’s used to, who are used to him.
Who see the quirky, but either have learned how to accept it or at least how to ignore it while not ignoring him.
And your focus is solely on the child himself and helping with what he needs, instead of also having to deal with other people.
We’ve been in that bubble this summer.
With friends who get it or at the very least, don’t make a big deal of what they don’t get.
Where my child can just be a child and not a child with XYZ-alphabet-soup-of-special-needs.
But that bubble popped recently.
With mean words from kids who didn’t even have an actual interaction with him, but made some judgement from a distance and had no problem voicing that different-ness they saw.
And it made me furious.
Furious that there are people who think it’s okay to say awful things about someone they don’t know, someone who did absolutely nothing to them other than to exist. Yes, even if they’re kids… especially since the parents could hear.
Kids speak the truth as they see it, they have no filter. But we, as parents, need to teach our kids kindness and acceptance. We do have to teach our kids to have a thicker skin, to not let everything bother them because the world isn’t a perfect place… but if we can all teach our kids to treat everyone better, there won’t be as much of a need for that thick skin.
And once my fury subsided, it made me sad.
Sad that my sweet, quirky boy has to deal with this.
And that our summer bubble is coming to an end and it will be back to life outside of it.
The real world, reality, we can’t stay away from it forever.
But oh, sometimes I’d really like to.
