Cover Photo: photo via pixabay
photo via pixabay

The World Doesn’t Bend for Disabled Kids (or Disabled Parents)

My kids have been kicked out of many, many places for being different—just like I was.

At age four, I’d been kicked out of our preschool carpool, and my mom was both ashamed and worried. She knew we needed help.

too disruptive.

Mean Girls

Did she put other kids in danger? Did she put herself in danger? Did she damage property?

Katie, that’s amazing

If she’s a good swim coach, she will know what to do.

sorry

That’s right, you make him do things.Why would you want to anyone do anything?

Well,That doesn’t sound easy at all.

now

Is

Stubborn. Noncompliant. Talks out of turn.

My sons’ first piano teacher moved away. The second one died tragically young. My sons love playing piano. So I hired a third piano teacher. The other day, she quit after only three lessons, saying that my sons “aren’t interested in piano.” After I got over my devastation—the initial feelings of shame, embarrassment, and pain—I recognized her words for what they were.

She told me that she was at a cocktail party when the Mean Girls of Carpool informed her that I was no longer welcome in their station wagons.

Katie is an author, speaker, an expert on mental disability. She is autistic and has bipolar disorder. She's the author of more than fifteen books that center mental disability, an eclectic mix, including an IPPY-award-winning series of romantic suspense novels and four essay collections on mental health and trauma (two of which won national awards). After earning her master's from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, she earned her law degree and doctorate in rhetoric. She works toward accessibility for everyone. A professor of writing, she lives in Chapel Hill, NC, with her family and horses.