A college bestie and I had babies the same year. We had always wanted to be groovy hippie mamas together!
You probably already know that I am NOT the chill earth mother I had imagined. When my kid came 16 weeks early, I had already shifted into overdrive, with a month in bed to prepare for my micropreemie.
My friend’s path was more slow to unfold, with a big bouncy baby and several months before something warranted investigating. We are on parallel paths — similar issues but different details.
Eighteen years later, we are still parallel parenting. One visit found us chatting in the car, her atypical teen’s happy place.
Driving through rolling countryside with a good cup of coffee, the words just flowed. They tumbled over each other, we laughed and remembered and fantasized about the future. Heaven.
SUDDENLY I squealed, as I felt some kind of bug (a big one) or small creature on my neck! UG! I slapped myself — hard.
Soft sneaky hands like those of my friend’s child.
Friend laughed, “I forgot to warn you, kiddo loves to sneak in a tickle.” And we all three laughed and smiled. Her child is nonverbal and I adore seeing their sense of humor, which has changed and matured over the years.
Those sneaky fingers found my neck a few more times over the next hour, and we laughed and laughed — after my initial squeal. I love this rebellious teenager’s not-so-subtle way of interrupting the grown ups and keeping herself involved and amused from the back seat.
These fun, funny, specific stories are the stories of our atypical kids’ individuality… of their personalities. This is what my Writing Our Kids Into History records. In our group we tell our kids’ full stories: of each child’s specific spot in our families, communities, and hearts.
A diagnosis often obscures the personal history wrapped around your child. A diagnosis can erase all the nonmedical parts of your kid: what they love, their sense of humor, how they interact in the world.
If you’re ready to get the details together to save forever, see all the details of my program HERE.
And if you have questions not answered there by the the FAQ, please send them along to angela [at] angelaltodd [dot] com
I spent 18 years as “archivist and senior research scholar” at an academic science library, actively trying to add women to the historical record and looking for the women who were already included almost accidentally. I have degrees in women’s history and cultural theory — the latter means that I see the cultural value of everyday practices such as food, clothing, hobbies, and domestic arrangements. Non-famous people matter.