Monday 11th June

After the anxieties of yesterday over going back to school today, you’d think this morning’s journey would have been terrible, wouldn’t you? Nope, I’m very pleased to say!

There was some anxiety when she got up but once she saw that I’d written in her book what she was anxious about (other children hitting her in the playground and doing her news) and the fact that my mobile number was at the front of the book, she calmed down. She was also one of the very few people happy that it was raining, because that meant indoor break-time and being away from the children that hit her.

As for the news aspect, I reminded her just before she went in about the “Freds” and she went in enthusiastically talking about them. 🐛👍🐛

She came out very happily this afternoon, chirping like a little bird!
There was a letter in her bag saying she’s one of the 20 pupils selected from her school to go and see the Olympic Torch when it passes through nearby in July, very pleased for her but at the same time, nervous because it’s going to be very busy. The staff ratio is 1:2 children so everything crossed that she enjoys the once-in-a-lifetime experience. One of the torch bearers is the mum of one of her classmates so not sure if that’s who they’ll see. D has no idea of the torch or its meaning so I’ll prepare her with footage, pictures etc beforehand.

Butterfly watch – day 11: 🐛🌸🐛
All getting bigger, more seem to be migrating around the top area. When they arrived, they were tiny little things, definitely big hairy caterpillars now:

Tonight’s picture is one D did of her & T, he is carrying her in the picture, very cute!

Hope everyone’s had a good day, thanks very much for reading. I did a blog today on “Disability and hate crime” today too if you’d like a read of that. Comments/RTs as ever welcomed Jx 😘

Disability and hate crime

“Hate” is such a strong word, isn’t it? I always try to encourage T and D not to say “hate” – I’d rather they used “don’t like” instead.

The definition of hate in the dictionary is:
Dislike intensely, intense dislike; person or thing hated. Hateful: causing or deserving hate.

Does that definition automatically make you think it should apply to a special needs child, or their family? Thought not…

The front page of our local paper carried an example of ” Disability Hate Crime” this week. A mum was catching a bus with her son – who has cerebral palsy – in a wheelchair. According to her, she was sneered at by another mum and shouted at and asked how much she “bribed the NHS to give her the wheelchair”. Shocking and then the poor woman presumably had to endure the stares and tuts from the perpetrator throughout the journey.

I use a SN buggy for D otherwise, to put it bluntly, we wouldn’t get anywhere. I don’t drive and her anxieties around other people being close to her mean that it is not mentally possible for her to walk to school/to the shops/to the bus stop. Quite simply, the buggy is our lifeline. I know there are probably people who think “let her walk, no matter how long it takes, force her” and then you risk her hanging onto a lamppost, howling with anguish because she is so scared.

Hubbie makes a joke that once we are somewhere she is comfortable, say the coffee shop, she hops out to get to a table and it’s a bit like Andy in Little Britain, she’s walking! Because she is settled, she knows where she is, she’s relaxed. It does get stares but you develop a thick(ish) skin and ignore it.

If any of those people walked past our back garden and saw her bouncing on the trampoline, they’d wonder and again, it’s because she’s in her own, safe environment.

The thought of disability hate crime increasing – especially as more cuts come in – worries me and the red-top tabloids take great delight in catching benefit frauds. A DLA award is not for life, it’s renewed every three years and in the majority of fraud cases, it’s injuries that have got better not children who are registered disabled, with a life-long learning disability that can be managed in time, but not cured.

So, what is the answer? More awareness but people have to want and be receptive to making themselves aware. Unfortunately in the vast majority of cases,it takes a diagnosis in the family for this to happen.

So, awareness goes on….are you with me?

Thanks for reading, comments/RTs as ever welcome Jx 😘