Tag: special needs parents
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My fancy school district is making headlines in a cringy way.
Our family moved to a rich neighborhood, in a wealthy city, for their school district. We needed a really good one. Our children are on the autism spectrum. They need an individualized education plan (IEP) that is heavy on expensive therapies and extra staff. A wealthy town should mean more money invested in the school.…
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Did I Make a Mistake in Putting Motherhood Above All Else?
I watched the film “The Lost Daughter”. Olivia Coleman, a middle-aged woman, is vacationing alone in Greece. She becomes consumed with the dramatic narrative of a fellow beach goer, a young mother and her daughter. Coleman is thrown back to her own youth when she struggled to parent small children and maintain a separate self…
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Orangutans at the table: Life with three wild boys.
In my pre-Mama days, I watched a nature program about scientists raising a few orphaned juvenile orangutans in the jungle. The mothers had been poached and they never had the benefit of socialization. The scientists were living with the animals in a camp. The scene that has stayed with me all of these years is…
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“please consider the impact on the environment before printing this email”
This is my “furious with Special Education administrator” face. Yes, there was a time when people printed out emails. It was called the aughts? 2000’s? One of those. Regardless, it was a thing and it was wasteful. Of course, there’s always those who know better and do better, so they would add to their email…
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WTAF: Special Needs Education During the Pandemic
I try to be funny and encouraging and post about the little victories. But there are days when the grind that is parenting children with special needs is just overwhelmingly impossible. It doesn’t FEEL impossible, it’s like, actually impossible. How we make it to bedtime each day most often feels like it involved magic. Now,…
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Pandemic Distance Learning 2020: Parenting Survival Hacks (the Autism Version)
During synchronous learning with the teacher, don’t stress about having a Pinterest-worthy classroom. Leave that laundry right there. If little brother is yelling about having to pee, even better. Best to set that bar nice and low from the outset. Finding your Halloween Monster magnet set with the phonics toys is a wonderful opportunity to…
CYNTHIA ZORABEDIAN 