In the last decade I have experienced just about the full gambit. From engagement to marriage; moving house and navigating married life. Realising that falling pregnant does not happen to plan or to schedule; having pregnancy and birth complications and a premature baby in NICU. Discovering my child had (has) significant developmental delays including a […]
There it was again. That wave that simultaneously knocks you off your feet and sucks you under the water where you can’t breathe or get your bearings. This is the thing with parenting a neurodiverse child. Your anxiety simmers constantly just at the surface, waiting for the next thing to happen. Yet, when it does […]
It has been a while. A lot has happened and unhappened. I am still wrapping my head around most of it. We started Grade 1. And like most of our journey, everything was great until it wasn’t. Around mid-February the wheels completely fell off. All the wheels. At once. A team meeting – he’s in […]
N has always possessed astute insight and a sharp power to anticipate errors – both became apparent to me around the time he was 2 years old. I believe these skills to be double edged swords. I have always said in my own work that I believe that a high level of insight can cause […]
I wrote a piece in the lockdown about the importance of our “village”. This year we joined a new village as N moved into a new school for Grade R. A beautiful new community of special little people and their strong, brave parents. There is an invisible thread that connects the mothers of ‘atypical’ children […]
Recently on a Saturday morning I went to a ladies’ only function. The first thing someone asked me (while we were waiting to go inside) was whether my husband was babysitting our son. I replied that no, it’s not babysitting when it is actually your own child. The conversation died a swift death and we […]
MONKEY BEAR On a Tuesday night a few weeks ago, I listened to a talk by a fellow mom of a child with special needs. She beautifully and accurately described this form of parenting as a wave that ebbs and flows and never goes away. On the Wednesday morning I was hit by a tidal […]
We did it. It all brought us here. My little boy sat through a cumulative 4.5 hours of educational psychology assessments involving EQ, IQ and an educational battery (thank you Ritalin). We made it through a parent interview and a feedback without 1 tear shed. For the first time ever, I wasn’t blindsided or surprised […]
Those who find it easy; and those who don’t. Those who stay at home; and those who go to work. The marathon-running moms; and the Netflix binge watching moms. Those who breast fed; who bottle fed; who did whatever it took. Those who went home with their baby; and those who are NICU veterans. Those […]
One of the toughest decisions I anticipated us being faced with so far, is whether and when to start N on Ritalin, Concerta or something similar. Now that he is almost 5 years old, the decision was thrust upon us 2 weeks ago at our annual appointment with the Developmental Paediatrician. I am not a […]