When you use your life as a teaching tool even the worst thing that has ever happened to you doesn’t seem so bad– that’s what I keep learning  🙂

It’s 3 : 26 PM on day 686 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself All Bran Flakes for breakfast, drink  Green Tea by myself,  publish my Disability of the Day feature and work.

A couple of day I posted a few Cerebral Palsy parenting tips in CP Connection – a Facebook group for people affected by Cerebral Palsy – and since the response was so overwhelming I thought it was worth posting an updated version of the list of Cerebral Palsy parenting tips. Take a look:

6 Cerebral Palsy Parenting Tips

1. Set high expectations for your kids (the saying children rise to expectation is true if you expect a lot from them they will think wow my parents really believe in me and they will rise to that expectation)

2. Let your kids do as much as they can by themselves (if you do everything for your child he/she will never learn to do anything for themselves which is not what you want because let’s be honest you won’t be around forever)

3. NEVER claim that you understand what your child who has CP is going through because unless you have CP you have no clue (you don’t know what feels like to have people talk to you with their voices full of pity even before they get to know you, you don’t know how it feels to have to work hard to do things that most people take for granted… you just don’t understand no matter how much you want to)

4. Don’t be in lifelong mourning for the person your child could have been if he/she didn’t have CP dream new dreams for them or modify the old ones (if I had a dollar for every time my mother said my daughter was supposed to do so much I would be a millionaire by now it’s sad that she’s missing out on the great person I am because she can’t let go of who I could have been)

5. if you have other children who don’t have CP please remember to spend some one-on-one time with them as they can feel neglected with all the attention going to the child who has CP sometimes my brother says it’s always about you and my sister resents my mother for not showing up for her school events because she was at home with me.

6. Take care of yourself (eat right, exercise 30 minutes a day take care of your children’s parents)

(Note: These tips can work for you regardless of what your child’s special need is)

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