Survival & Daycare

i worry about how tough gommy needs to be sometimes. i know that's an inane thing to be concerned about given how tough he already is, but i recognize that he's a disabled kid living in an ableist world. he needs to be able to stand up for himself, and as a dad i need for him to be able to do that. it's one of my bigger fears.

but let me tell you. you dont mess with gommy.

our beloved day care provider has shared with us a couple of stories...once where one of the other toddlers climbed on gommy (as kids tend to do) and another where one of the kids took gommy's sophie the giraffe (which by the way is the most overrated kids toy ever).

in both situations gommy yelled and fought back. didnt really cry, but let the world know that he had been wronged. then apparently the rest of the day he'd look at the other kid with an angry face and occasionally send out warning yells to him.

straight gangsta. maybe i dont need to be so worried about him.

and secondly...daycare is a hard thing for special needs parents. we are blessed beyond recognition that our current provider is as wonderful as she is. in fact she's not really a provider, she's really family. but the truth of the matter is that gommy is growing up, and just like vincent, we need to think about other arrangements.

in september gommy will start a half day program at the local elementary...with a neurotypical kid it would be as simple as just finding him a half time day care setting, but gommy essentially has the physical needs of a kid much younger than him so your normal day care settings just dont work. same thing when he gets to school age...we're going to have to figure out summer care because, again, we cant send him to day cares because they individual classes are categorized by ages and not necessarily abilities (if that makes sense).

fortunately D and i are problem solvers and we will figure this out, but it's another example of the winding and unknown path we find ourselves on...that with vincent questions were answered based on recommendations from others or simply by observing. with gommy we have to strive to do our best with multiple plausible scenarios.

but i suppose that the unknown can either be framed as a stressor or an adventure with the possibility of a magical ending. i prefer to look at it as the latter.