Disability, Caring and Rights

I readthis article earlier and it and the response to it on twitter has greatly disturbed me.*Content warning for the article- parent literally calling her disabled adult daughter "damaged goods" and discussion of adult woman's personal care needs.*I am saddened and angry at how this story has been framed. There are multiple human rights abuses described in the article. The article itself adds a new breach of Siobhan's rights- the right to privacy by discussing her intimate personal care needs in public. I am frankly disgusted by how her mother describes her:“Sorry. I’m going to be very straight about it: she’s not special. She’s damaged goods. I wanted the child that I thought I was going to have. The one that was going to have two children by now, and have finished university studies, and be having a life for herself, in a home where I could v isit and babysit my grandchildren. I wanted to have that child.”That's not how being a parent works. You bring a child into the world and you do your best for them but you can't plan a life for them that fits around your fantasy.On twitter this is being heralded as brave honesty- that finally a parent is breaking the taboo of how hard caring is. That's bullshit. There's an article every day about how hard parenting disabled kids is. There's no end of parents sharing their innermost thoughts about the child they wished they'd had instead of the damaged one they got. Seriously type "care disabled son or daughter" into Google o...
Source: The Voyage - Category: Child Development Source Type: blogs