When I think of the book, Reflections on a Different Journey, I wish that I had come up with the idea first. Stanley Klein, a clinical psychologist who works with children with disabilities, and John Kemp, attorney and advocate for the right of people with disabilities, asked people with disabilities to respond to the question, “what do you wish your parents knew when you were growing up?” Their desire was to have a book about raising children with disabilities by adults with disabilities rather than other parents or professionals. This collection of essays does that and so much more.
While the book is broken down into five sections, the book as a whole addresses life in a very complete way. If you are looking for strategies or techniques, you won’t find many. What you will find is encouragement for parents to love their children for who they are, be involved in their lives, and have high expectations for them in all areas of life. Pretty simple stuff, really, its things all parents are suppose to do. Yet for some parents, it seems from these personal, touching stories – the hardest lessons to learn are the least complicated.
Considering these stories, my parents did me well. They always believed in me. I always knew they loved me. The only area I wish they had done more was encouraging me to approach the opposite sex. Looking back, that was one area they never pushed me in. Maybe they just thought I’d have to figure it out. And I did, I am now married and we have a beautiful little boy. But I think it would have given me more self-confidence to try new things and be more open to new people in my high school years.
If I ever meet a parent who wants advice or a book on what to expect from their child this is the book I would think of first.
No comments:
Post a Comment