Lack of expectation is the reason most “disabled” people don’t reach their full potential – that’s what I learned today 🙁
It’s 7 : 03 PM on day 887 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, take off my dirty t-shirt and put a clean t-shirt on, feed myself a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, pray, read Exodus 7, publish my Disability of the Day feature, practice typing with both hands, work, practice sitting up straight to strengthen my core muscles, feed myself rice and curry for lunch and put a hoodie on by myself – it took me like thirty minutes to do but I did it eventually I am so proud of me 🙂
Today I was wondering why some people break the “disability” stereotype while others live up to it and realized that those who break the “disability” stereotype either have high expectations of themselves or have people in their lives who have high expectations of them while others do not. Do you have high expectations for all your kids regardless of whether they have a “disability” or not?
I LOVE hearing from you feel free to leave a comment below.
I have 3 daughters Jenifer is 11, Kylee is 8 and Nicole is 4. Jenifer does not have special needs, Kylee has Down Syndrome and Nicole is deaf. I have the same expectations for all of my girls that they will be loving caring smart respondsible women who love God. But they will all achive it in their own ways. I do not hold Kylee and Nicole to lower standards because they have disablities. If I did they would eventully think of themselves as being “lower”.
I’m glad you have the same expectations for all your kids 🙂 You’re right if you set lower expectations for Kylee and Nicole they would eventually think of themselves as being “lower” I know that from personal experience my parents set low expectations for me because I had Cerebral Palsy and set high expectations for my siblings because they were born neuro-typical.
I was born without an lower left arm. My parents divorced when I was 3. I lived with my mom until I was 10 and she had no expectations for me. She never made me do chores or think much of my grades which were good. This treatment not only made me feel bad about myself it made my sister who is 18 months older than me resent me. When I was 10 my sister and I went to live with our father. He treated me normally making me have respondsibilties, follow rules and live up to high expectations. This was hard at first now as a 34 year old and mother of a daughter with Down Syndrome I relize that he was doing the right thing. I made a promise to myself after my daughter was born that I would never lower my expectations for her because she has Down Syndrome.
Wow what an amazing dad you had and what an amazing mom you are 🙂 Keep setting high expectations for your daughter you can’t go wrong doing that.