More Parents’ Days?

So… as you all know, I hang out on Twitter an awful lot.  One of the other parents I follow posted a link to an article discussing whether or not we should have a parents’ day for special needs parents…

Well, let’s be honest.  The article is a compilation of thoughts based on a Facebook post about whether we should have one, with reactions from parents as well.

So my thoughts?

Aside from the fact that I think that Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day are horribly commercial and seem to really be more about “stuff” than recognizing the folks who raised us?

Mainly, I don’t really know what having a specific day for special needs parents would achieve.

If the idea of “normal” Mothers’/Fathers’ Day is for kids to recognize their parents for what they do, do our special needs children necessarily need to have a second day for doing that?  (Moreover, to echo another parent who is quoted in the article – and coincidentally is the twitterer who pointed me to the article itself – the Monster isn’t cognizant of the day already, and usually has to be prompted for “I love you” and the like… I wouldn’t count on his doing anything for such a day yet anyway.)

If it’s to raise awareness of the struggles we have as parents of special needs children, it’s misguided at best.  Our friends and families already know about how much harder it is, and they certainly don’t need to have the awareness reminder.  Anyone else… is going to be kind of oblivious by nature, and I don’t think having a holiday will change that, not with the plethora of special days for this group and that which are already ignored by the general public.

And, not least of all, is my own “meh”ness about these kinds of days.  (I’m going to leave that comment right there without further elaboration.)

But, really, there’s one overwhelming reason that we don’t need a special day for anyone to ‘recognize’ the difficulty of being a special needs parent.  We have one of those – it’s called “everyday”.

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