I started a parenting course a couple of weeks ago. It’s run
by Social Services in my local area, and I’ve found it really interesting. It
doesn’t take into account any form of disability or mental health issues but
I’m sticking with it, as I’ve made some nice connections there. However, a
Social Worker made a statement towards to end of a session last week and It’s
stuck with me. She said that parenting an, “adoptive, tramatised or
disabled child is a thankless task.”
At the time I completely agreed. We’d had a bad, challenging
day at home. Then I slept and woke up and I got annoyed.
From my birth son, I get thanks every day, just seeing his
little face light up when I enter the room or to help him stand makes my heart
warm. So it got me thinking this week, when does my adopted, tramatised and
disabled child thank me?
My first thought was, why does he need to thank me? Some
would say that we gave him a home and a good life and therefore he should be
thankful but I do not see it like that at all. We chose to have him; we literally
chose him on paper and got him. We should be the thankful ones.
Then I couldn’t help but think – and it does take a lot of
thinking sometimes, when you’ve had a day and night from hell – that of course
he thanks me. Not the same as my birth son, of course not, who has been brought
up so far without any trauma and with a stable loving family home. But he does
it in his own way. I turned-up at school today and got pulled in to his
classroom because he was having a meltdown. The fear I saw in him when I came around
the corner broke my heart but the sobs and the tears of me being there thanked
me – which to most people would make no sense. However, I know that I’m making
sense to other FASD parents out there.
The gratitude I get when the meltdowns end, or the memories
come back make my job of being a parent worthwhile. Even though some days,
weeks and even months I don’t feel this way; I feel like the world is against
me and that my son hates me, actually I know that’s just the face of his
disability.
This week we attended our mental health appointment for him
and got told that he needs to be diagnosed as ASD as well as FASD. I’ve suspected
as much considering how similar the characteristics are, but then I got really
upset that he’d been labelled again. To me, this labelling seems to make life
easier for professionals because then they can go on that diagnosis alone and
not worry about FASD or doing any research on it!
I fight locally to raise awareness and obviously I write
these pieces so that I can hopefully reach someone, somewhere to either help
the or raise awareness. Even if it just reaches one person somewhere on Facebook
or Twitter it’s done its job. But I almost feel like I’ve slightly lost my
fight to raise awareness because it’s so much easier for him to be ASD as well
that his FASD will always be overlooked.
However, this will not stop me! I will not stop writing and
telling people about our lives, our adventures or our difficulties and I so
hope that someone somewhere reads this and feels the same.
