Today is Labor Day (although by the time I post this, it will most certainly not be). And it felt like Summer’s Last Hurrah. We have a very popular art/music/food festival in our area that we have been attending for … Continue reading
Slice is a nifty little app that keeps track of your online purchases for you. It tracks the shipping (if available), even letting you know when something has been delivered to your door (which is invaluable if you are at … Continue reading
Squag, according to their website, is “a curated social space for kids with autism (and other learning differences) to build ideas about themselves”. I signed up for Squag because I thought The Boy would like it. He liked a similar … Continue reading
The Man is a reader. In the bathroom. On our last visit, I discovered that he was using the trash bins in the bathrooms as storage for his National Geographics and his reading glasses. If they were in there, where … Continue reading
Katrina, who has commented here, is a blogging buddy of mine in our 31 Days Blog Challenge. I’ve been following her for a little while, and she writes really well about being a special needs mom. Her post, “The Truth About Being the Perfect Special Needs Parent” is one of her best.
In this post, she writes about the constant feeling of failure, like she isn’t being everything she can be for her kids.
I know this feeling.
Twice this summer, The Boy has had such magnificent, long-lasting meltdowns, that I was the one who ended up pacing the floors, unsure of what to do, unable to pull anything from my bag of tricks because it was completely empty. I was the one moved to tears because I was tired, emotionally spent, and couldn’t take it for one more second. I was the one who felt like such an astounding failure.
Katrina ends her post by writing about how important it is to lean on others, accept support, and let others be strong for us, even when it is the last thing we want to do.
I am lucky to have The Man, mind-reader that he is, who (during the second meltdown, as I was pacing, and probably looking like a kicked puppy) said, “You have done all you can do. There is nothing left. You are not a failure.”
I urge you to go read Kat’s blog, katscafe.org. She gives a beautifully written voice to us special needs parents.
I am always saddened by the divisive nature of the autism community. It seems that we parents need to pick sides on plenty of issues, or be ridiculed, or even better “educated” by those who hold differing viewpoints. For or against vaccines? Autism Speaks? Medication? Jenny McCarthy? Chelation? We are even supposed to pick sides on whether the “Trip to Holland” allegory is touching or insulting.
Autism Awareness (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When The Boy was first diagnosed (at age 5), I was handed a brochure, and told to contact the Autism Society of America. And that was it. I obviously needed more support than that, and looked to the Internet to join a group in which I could participate to the extent that I wanted to on any given day. I joined a yahoo group of autism parents, and thought, “This will surely help.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was confused by all of the differing opinions on things I had never even heard about, and saw actual arguments unfold, in this group of adults whose supposed sole reason for existing was support. I did not remain a member long.
I think we do our children a great disservice by not recognizing that just like autism is a spectrum disorder, the treatments, causes, documentation, and people attempting to assist us are all a part of a larger spectrum, as well. There is no one treatment, no one cause, and no one group that can satisfy all of our needs. If you think that, you are shutting the door to so many other possibilities for your child.
We must trust ourselves to do what is right by our children, as no one knows them as well as we do. But we must not abuse each other in the process, as no one knows what we go through each day better than another parent of a child with autism. We must agree to disagree so that we can move forward, creating better treatments, finding causes, and building better organizations for our community. The divisive nature we have shown thus far is quite possibly holding our cause back, and it will continue to do so, unless we make a change now in how we treat each other.
lunch-2007-04-03a (Photo credit: flakyredhead)
Hi, my name is Annie and I’ve been phoning it in. I’ve been giving my kid lunchables and poptarts for far too long with the excuse that he is a picky eater and that is all he’ll eat. I’ve decided that I’m not going to do that this year. I’m tired of the guilt, the lack of nutrition in my son’s diet, and the money spent. We’re going to switch it up.
I’ve talked about going “back to bento” for myself, and I am excited. I’ve also talked to The Boy about making our own “lunchables”, where we can choose what lunchmeats/crackers/pizza toppings go in the lunch, rather than taking what good ol’ Kraft decides to give us. Realistically, he would eat pizza everyday for every meal if I let him, and I can give him less processed and pre-packaged options for pizza easily. His other choices are based on the candy or treat that comes with the lunchable, so I’m sure he wouldn’t say no to a homemade cookie or two instead.
This means that I will be menu planning every week, for dinners and lunches. If you’d like me to share my weekly menu plan, let me know in the comments.
Here are a couple of final thoughts:
Wish me luck!
I’ve put it off for long enough. The Boy’s first ASD teacher died earlier this month, and for lots of reasons, I chose to wait a bit to break it to him. I was extremely upset, as it was definitely … Continue reading
If you are an internet hound like me, and you do a fair amount of shopping via the web, also like me, you may want to check out Dashlane. This is one of those password saver applications that not only saves your passwords extremely securely, it also fills out forms for you online. Creating a new account for some website? Dashlane will fill that out for you! Not sure if you have an account on this site? Dashlane remembers. I was skeptical at first, but after it was reviewed and recommended by lifehacker.com, I gave it a shot (it was still in beta at the time), and I love it.
Want to save some time? Try Dashlane.
(And no, I get nothing for recommending it!)
Comcast bill (Photo credit: pmsyyz)
Today I called the cable company who decided to up my bill by $20 a month. I spoke with two people, who both were very nice, but also professionals. “Let’s see what’s going on with your account…” They both knew exactly what had happened – The promotional term had ended, and no one had informed me that there was a promotional term. They know that because they get hundreds of calls a day from people just like me, complaining about the very same rate hike, yet they pretend to commiserate and try to “figure out” what could possibly be happening with my bill. They ask if there are any other problems with the service, they ask if maybe I have more services than I need. This is the tactic they use to try to get people to back down and agree that the services provided really are worth the extra money.
They don’t fool me. I have my own techniques. I stayed calm, and kept repeating that I would have to go to their competitor to see if they could offer a better deal — this was how I got the first person to switch me to the “loyalty department”. The second person tried to get me to see what a deal I was still experiencing, as I was still $15 under “retail” by asking if I had any issues with buffering or picture quality. I finally told him, “I don’t have any problem with the service, I have a problem with the price.” At this point he offered to “split the difference with me”. I took his offer, but in the meantime, got all the pertinent facts about how much Internet and basic cable were costing (each), when the cost would go up again, and the mbps speed, so that I can go to their competitor and see if I need to make a change.
Before I became a single mom, I never would have picked up the phone to make this call. I still do not like talking to people (businesses) on the phone, but now I can play the game and save myself some money when I have to.
What tips do you have for saving money on bills?
Simple. I Just Do. 