Dumb Comments

To preface: I honestly believe that people are inherently good, and I love, love, love people. I am a natural extrovert and thoroughly enjoy being in the company of others, and love when people sincerely ask questions. But sometimes, people say things without thinking, or are trying to be nice but it rubs a special needs mom wrong, or they are just flat rude. Here are some of those eyebrow-raising moments I have had while raising my sweet daughter. And tell me some of your stories!


1. "If you take out her tonsils, all her speech problems will be gone."

2. This one made me laugh until I cried: When Little Miss was in early intervention, we had people coming in and out of our house constantly- speech therapists, nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, developmental specialists... The list goes on and on. One day, a neighbor asked (totally seriously) if we were 'like, drug dealers or something'.

3. When Chelsea was learning to walk, she used a little metal walker, and one of the highlights of her day was watching the neighborhood kids walk to school. So one morning I was outside with Chelsea, and a mom walking by asked, "If you knew your daughter was going to be so handicapped, would you have kept her?" If I had been quicker on my feet, I may have responded, "If your mother knew you were so stupid, would she have kept you?" But I was too shocked to respond

 
4. "Wow, you are SO LUCKY because you get free preschool!" I know, right??? Free preschool and tens of thousands of dollars of therapy! Get in line, quick!!!!

5. When I was walking out of a building after seeing a pediatric neuropsychologist, I had a person ask who I was seeing. When they heard who I had been visiting with, she said, "You know, I am so jealous! All these special needs moms don't really have to do much. Your kids' therapists do all the work!"

6. "You know, you really should try (something obvious that I have been doing for years)" says a person with no experience what-so-ever in special needs

7. I took my Chelsea into the pediatrician for her 4 year checkup. I had been sending him monthly reports for 3 years on her diagnoses, therapies, interventions, etc. After going through the questions of where Chelsea was developmentally (she didn't hit a single target), the doctor said, "Well, Chelsea seems to be falling behind her peers. Have you ever considered doing early intervention or doing speech therapy?"

Other Comments:

• "Child's Name is too smart to talk" Cuz screaming is so much more effective, ya know
• "Look at all that money that Mom is spending on therapy. That is just overpaid babysitting"
• "You know, if you just let him be a kid then he'd develop just fine. I think you're causing his issues by making him do all of this therapy. Just leave him alone."
• "I don't think your kids have any problems. I think you're just projecting your fears onto them and causing their problems."
• As a special needs child is sobbing in the backseat, yelling "HOW CAN YOU STAND IT??"