What I've learnt recently

A few things have happened lately which have meant I have had to do heaps of research.

All related to my kids of course.

Source

Although, I must say, I have also made some decisions about my own future. At least for me it was a simple case of heading off to see the Careers Counsellor at TAFE and I had all the information I needed. Quite simple really.

With LJ things are not always that simple.  Not only is he a robust, rough and tumble nearly 11 year old, but he has Down syndrome (DS).  Behaviour, they say, is always communication. Unfortunately, I am not the best interpreter.  I feel like I am in a constant game of Charades.

I have read books, essays, other parents accounts and anything else I could get my hands on, so now I am turning to the DS community.  I have sought out the ear of parents who have gone before me, who have older children or adult children in the hope they will be able to drop some pearl of wisdom in my lap so that I can get on with the doing and less of the searching.

As for MJ, if only it was behaviour.  Well, not that some of it isn't, he is a teenager after all and what would a typical 16.5 year old be without that bit of attitude that signals the developmental stage they are at. That horrid stage of not quite being an adult and still being a child in many ways too.  I remember that period of my life, and mostly, what I do remember about it was that I just wanted it to pass. It is when we are coming to the point in life where we start to get to know ourselves as someone other than our parent's children, understanding much of what we could not have known before and trying to make sense of it all.

I am therefore in a state of gratitude daily that MJ is less like me than I can ever have hoped for. He is an independent person who has his head screwed on the right way and while he is still experiencing many things that will shape his beliefs and life direction, he already has some fantastically insightful points of view and values that will stand him in good stead for life.

Which brings me to what I have learnt recently.

I have learnt .... I have a lot to learn.

"The more I read, the more I acquire,

the more certain I am that I know nothing." 

Voltaire