The guilt.
The shame.
The loneliness.
The exhaustion.
They are often the constant companions of mothers raising children with special needs.
“I feel like a horrible mother because I can’t take my child’s behavior anymore,” writes Zenovia K. in the Children with ADHD/ADD community. Her 12-year-old daughter has both attention deficit hyperactivity and oppositional defiant disorders. It\'s a tough cognitive combination that sometimes causes her daughter to physically and verbally assault her.
“I feel so alone,” Zenovia posts.
Yet she isn’t.
At least not according to numbers reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- 13 percent of American children have a developmental disability ranging from a mild speech or language impairment to a serious developmental or intellectual diagnosis such as cerebral palsy or autism.
- 4.5 million school age children have ADHD
- 1 in 110 children have an autism spectrum disorder
- 10 percent of children have anxiety disorder
“The last few days I seem to feel like I’m failing as a mother,” writes Summer P. in the Mothers of Special Needs Children community.
Her three-year-old son has a global development delay, mild cerebral palsy, and a genetic disorder caused by a chromosome deletion. His vocabulary is limited. She’s having difficulty getting him to understand the concept of danger.
“I always felt like I was in control and dealing with everything the best I could, but in the last few days I’m feeling like I’m just failing,” Summer posts. “Major guilt and feelings of failure happening in our house.”
In just two short paragraphs, Summer used the word “failure” three times to describe her efforts as a mom.
While feelings of failure are real and valid emotions, a mom named Holly O. points out that they don’t say much about how well a parent is actually handling the special challenge of raising of a special needs child. As she puts it, “While it is easier said than done, throw that guilt and failure right out the window. You are a good, loving, caring mom of a very complex little boy.\"
“Yes, there are times when you feel you are failing them but you are not,” writes Brenda H.
“You are doing the best you can with a difficult child,” adds Jane S.
Hearing encouraging words from other mothers who are walking the same path can be exactly the help a discouraged mom needs most.
Case in point: Christi T. posted about her feeling of failure in the Autism/Asperger’s/PPD Awareness community not long after her son was first diagnosed. She didn\'t realize he was behind developmentally initially, and when the diagnosis finally came, people in her life questioned her skills as a mother, blaming her for her son’s diagnosis.
“When I tell them, they laugh and say, oh, he will grow out of it,” she writes. “They ask, how old are you, and when I tell them my age (I am soon to be 22), I get oh, it’s just because you are a young mom and don’t know what you are doing. It frustrates me so much and makes me feel like a complete failure.”
Christi changed her tune after a few fellow mothers commented on her thread.
“I guess I just kinda needed a pep talk,” she posted. “Thank you for all of the support, it really is comforting to know I am not the only mom out there that feels this way.”
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, POPSUGAR.
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