The internet has a wealth of information about a vast variety of special needs. It is fairly easy to look up medical information or news articles regarding a special need. Sometimes, it can be comforting to read a blog written by a parent about the personal side of parenting a child who has a special need. Here are a few interesting ones to explore.
Parents can get online and quickly look up symptoms, recommended diets, help with IEPs, and news about health insurance coverage for their child’s special needs. What about if all you want is some conformation that your family isn’t the only one struggling with what may look like a crazy lifestyle from the outside? This is the time to read a good blog that is written by the parent of a child who has a special need. You might feel less alone, and a little more “normal” (whatever that means).
One of the first personal parenting type blogs I found was Avery’s Bucket List. Avery was born with SMA, which stands for spinal muscular atrophy. It is an incurable disease that is caused by a genetic defect.
Realizing that his daughter had a shortened life expectancy, Michael Canahuati created a blog with a “bucket list” and lots of information about SMA. Avery has passed away, but the blog her father created about her is still an excellent read.
CNN has a section called Schools of Thought. Not all of it focuses on parenting children who have special needs. It also covers homeschooling, first day of school, and education in general.
However, today it has a post called “A letter to my special needs son’s school’s principal” that is honest, heartbreaking, and hopeful at the same time. A mom writes to her son’s principal about his special needs, and how he has been treated at school as a result of them. She notes that basketball saved him, and fears that will be taken away from him due to his grades. She expresses her frustration in getting help for her son, Aden, despite asking for it.
Stark. Raving. Mad. Mommy. is written by a mom who has four children, all of whom have special needs (in different ways). On the About Page, she describes the blog as:
“I write about the hilarious insanity that is my life. This includes parenting, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, ADHD, allergies, asthma, Asperger Syndrome, and whatever else we have cooking at any given moment”.
She doesn’t hold back on what goes on in her life and with her kids, or how she feels about it. You get the real deal in this very well written and entertaining blog about parenting children who have special needs.
Image by Maria Reyes-McDavis on Flickr