A mother relates the difficulties encountered in raising a child with a developmental disorder. Letting a child grow up is difficult enough; letting a child grow up who has a developmental disorder can be painful. Read this mother’s story.
New York Times – parenting.blogs.nytimes.com
By EILEEN RILEY-HALL
‘My 15 year-old daughter Lizzie is very angry with me right now. Over breakfast this morning, she sputtered through tears that I am not letting her grow up, and that I am an overprotective, crazy mother. “Not fair,” she kept repeating: her mantra, but the words don’t seem to sink into my apparently dense skull.
Our argument, which began last night and spilled into this morning, is about a simple thing: walking the dog. She can walk our sweet little mutt, Scooter, anywhere in our neighborhood, but she is not allowed to venture on the busier main roads nearby. Yesterday, a neighbor spotted Lizzie and Scooter on the busy road, and Lizzie has lost her dog-walking privileges for now. Last night, after a few minutes of indignant ranting, she ran down the hall and slammed her bedroom door shut at the injustice of it all.’
Source: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/letting-a-daughter-with-development-disorders-grow-up/
