Lessons I've Learned

As a mom of two boys, one with Autism and Spina Bifida and a typical child, I have learned a few lessons over the years. I seem to learn more as Pollito gets bigger. Boy boys will be celebrating birthdays over the next few weeks. While there's a 7 year age difference, the gap is closing rather quickly in mentally and emotionally which is making me quite frankly, a little uneasy. 

I knew the day would come when i would need to talk to Pollito and explain the Big Kid had special needs and will need him to help him at times. Pollito will be 5 next and Big Kid will be 12. Pollito is a little more advanced for his age in pretty much all capacity except emotionally. He's a typical 4 year old who cannot process yet all the complexities that exists in our world. 

Lessons I've learned:

• I cannot compare my kids. No two apples are alike. (This is both obvious yet challenging.)

• My boys are different and require different set of rules at times.

• I am human and I err... A LOT. And it's ok.  

• Things aren't black or white. There's a lot of gray areas we must filter through. 

• Patience has never been my forte. I've become slightly more tolerant but it's still a work in progress. 

• Just when I thought I had it (somewhat) together, or have a system in place, I realized I have only touched the tip of the iceberg. 

• No retreat, no surrender.  Simply put, I cannot and will not back away from the challenges.  

• There are more lessons yet to come.

I'm trying not to be so hard on myself and just pick the brains of my wonderful support group and other special needs parents whenever a question (or crisis) arises.  I'm perfectly imperfect in my imperfect world and I'm ok with that.