Being Up With Down Syndrome

It was a busy week.  It was a trying week.  How can I save the world if people (my family) want me to cook, clean, teach and love them? The Steel Valley District, Park Elementary School teachers were caught being bullies.  I was dismayed by this  story  that started with denial of a student, 10 year old Kaitlin Montgomery who has Autism, chronic lung disease and pulmonary hypertension, which makes it difficult for her to climb stairs or walk any distance.  She needed to use the Faculty bathroom on the ground floor where her classes were, because there wasn't a student bathroom on that floor near her special education classes. Eighteen teachers, two of them being "Special Needs" teachers, filed a grievance with their Union to make this disabled child use another bathroom on another floor.  Really.  Not only was it disturbing, but it was utter bullying.  These capable teachers have a total of three faculty rooms in this building.   After this came to light throu

When I first became a parent I was looking to be exactly like other Catholic parents, whatever that was.  I immunized Beau and Maria.  I put them in pre-school because they would never get into Harvard if I didn't.  I bought the "Happy Meals" because that was what all the other moms did.  I dressed them like all the other kids.  We celebrated Santa and then God.  Why oh why was I so unhappy?  I had everything I wanted, so I thought. One day I turned and saw a disaster following me.  A Catholic School run by feminists of the worst kind.  Caring more about academics and fundraising than the souls of these little people.  We were raising them to put God on the back burner.   God knew exactly what to do.  I became pregnant with Ireland.  I had secondary infertility.  I was very busy when I became pregnant.  I was working part-time for the Catholic Pre-School, working part-time as a Waitress at a place that had Country Music Shows.  I was also helping my brother start

I read this article this morning. As I read the comments from parents that said they would abort their baby if they found out it was going to have Down Syndrome, it occurred to me what a different conversation there would be if they didn't know they were going to have a baby with Down Syndrome.  These people would learn that they were given a gift. The comment "I would have a very hard time dealing with a retarded child. Retardation is relative, it could be so negligible that the child is normal, or so severe that the child has nothing… All of the sharing things you want to do, the things you want to share with a child – that, to me, is the essence of being a father. There would be a big void that I would feel. I would feel grief, not having what I consider a normal family." Let's talk about this statement. If you had a "retarded" child, the first thing you would do, is stop using that word. You have a child that has Down Syndrome. This is not who t