Hey Dibber family,
Just need a wee vent/rant, feeling pretty overwhelmed after both of my kids (DD9 and DS7) having a pretty hard week in school (due to other kids being mean) and topped off with my experience dropping my DS7 at a birthday party 20 minutes ago.
Sorry if I go on like War and Peace but bare with me :-)
So my DD9 has high functioning autism and attends mainstream primary school. Other than us knowing she is diagnosed, nobody outside our family would realise that she has autism but we have always been very open about it and myself and DH have always told her that it's nothing to be ashamed of and to be proud of the kind, caring and creative wee sweetheart that she is. Anyway it turns out that her so called 'bestie' has been going round telling everyone that DD is a "weirdo who nobody will ever love and that she'll never be able to drive a car as people with autism aren't normal enough to drive" my poor DD is (i'd love to say WAS) but she IS totally devastated and broken hearted that someone she trusted has been going round saying these things. I too am devastated, you can do what you want to me but don't hurt my children! My DD's ex-bestie is in the same class as her and is very much street wise in contrast to my innocent and naive daughter and couldn't care less about the hurt she has caused. The school have been good about it but the mum of the ex-bestie not so much, I have approached her and she basically to make a long story short has quoted "not my girl" not casting any stereotypes but the mum is a school teacher herself and i'm not saying that she should have reacted a certain way but I certainly expected more from her, especially seeing as her daughter has already admitted in the school what she has said and how many people she has repeated it too! Our DD is very emotional and through the summer holidays we worked tirelessly on her mental health and building her confidence but now all of that has disappeared and we are beginning from scratch again
This isn't the 1st time our DD has been bullied and I have absolutely no doubts that this will be the last time, all we can do is be there for her.
Now onto DS7 - he's a very intelligent wee man (very proud mum & dad) so much so that we refer to him as 'young Sheldon'
(my husband is basically Sheldon from Big Bang Theory but looks like a v handsome Leonard!
) Anyway, I digress... We live in Glasgow and basically if you don't play football or support a team (1 of the big 2) you're not one of the popular kids, not that our DS minds - he couldn't care less! He knows all of the states of America and every capital, can recite nearly every planet in the Solar system and is in the P4 reading group (even though he's only a P3 - composite class)
So today there's a birthday party that DS is invited to, he has 1 football top that his Granda bought him he had no problem wearing it so we arrive at the car park of the ground where the party is and he runs over to his friends - who I see roll their eyes as he bounds up to them - they ask why he's wearing a football top and why does he not have the matching socks/shorts (the 2 mums standing there said nothing) I answered the 2 boys by saying "you are aware that Beckham is still capable of kicking a ball without a full strip on! " sorry I couldn't hold back my sarcasm as I was so angry/hurt on our DS's behalf!) - as I said our DS could not care less and happily trotted into the party behind these 2 but my heart has actually broke and i'm sitting here in tears wondering why my kids just cant be themselves without getting treated like crap and getting judged by others!
I wanted to take my DS home with me and cuddle him all afternoon but I know I have to let him enjoy the party the best he can and hope that he has a fantastic time
Sorry for the vent but i'm just overwhelmed by hurt for our 2 kids, I know kids can be cruel but it's just been an extremely long week for our family and the experience in the car park just broke the camels' back!
We're VERY proud to say that we have been complimented on many an occasion as to our kids kindness and manners but I feel like we've done them a dis-service as this seems to do them no favours! Seems to me that the more feral the kid, the better they get on in life these days!
Anyone have any experience with this? I need to toughen up but just feeling very emotional and my 'Leonard' is not very good with an emotional Dunx
Again apologies for the rant - i'm off to make a cup of tea and relax!
Dunx x