Let’s face it, being the parent of a child with special needs can be one of the most amusing jobs on earth. There are a lot of emotions that we experience as parents and family members. Often, the ones we talk about the most are negative and difficult to deal with, but sometimes, it is exactly because our children are unique and special that we get some of the best laughs. Here are a few ways our children have helped us to look at the world differently and smile:

• Being a very literal 3 yr old with autism, my son stubbed his toe and asked for “Toeosporin” because “Neosporin” was only for knees.

• I thought that eating an ice cream cone was intuitive, not learned… Until my two year old with Down syndrome held the cone in one hand and used the other hand to scoop ice cream into his mouth.

• When my son learned to count to 20, he agreed to allow me to shut the bathroom door, but only long enough for him to count from 1 to 20. When he got to 20, my time was up!

• When my son was 4 years old, I turned my back to say good-bye to my mom and walk her to the door. When I went back, he had the Costco-sized tub of butter out of the fridge and had covered himself, the floor, the fridge and cabinets in butter. He looked up at me and said, “I’ve been waiting my whole life to do this.”

• My daughter has used a motorized wheelchair since just before her 4th birthday (she’s 5 now). When we’re out in public and she sees other people in a wheelchair, she screams in excitement and makes a beeline for them. I swear she’s trying to form a wheelchair gang. Once, when she got excited about an old man being pushed in his wheelchair, I said, “Julia, that’s an 85-year-old man.” She stuck her finger in my face and said, “Shh. You don’t talk about my friend.”

• In special ed pre-school, a parent educator came to our house for a home visit and helped us set up a “token economy” for Connor. We were supposed to focus more on rewarding Connor’s good/appropriate behaviors and less time on all of the negative. The first couple of days went well, but then Connor came to me with a hand full of tokens offering to “buy” bad behavior. He wanted to do something that he knew wasn’t allowed, so he was giving me his tokens in advance.

• After a particularly bad day in 2nd grade, Connor was asked to write a letter of apology to his teacher. He said, “I’m sorry for my inappropriate classroom behavior, but some days you make me so mad I want to kill you.” And he signed it, “Your Friend, Connor.”

• At 8 years old, when asked to make a list of the 5 most important things in his life, we (Mom and Dad) didn’t even make the list. But the dog did.

• Walking through Sam’s Club, Steven spotted a palette of #10 cans of Manwich and asks, “What’s Manwich?” I replied to him, “Manwich is a sauce you mix with meat to make a sandwich, kind of like a sloppy joe.” Steven replies, “Well that’s silly, everyone knows a male witch is called a warlock – they should call it Warlock – NOT Manwich!

 

• Our family was looking through recipes to find a fun cake to bake for Easter dessert. Our daughters found a cute recipe for a cake in the shape of an Easter bunny. Trying hard to keep their uninterested brother involved I asked him “Do you want a bunny cake for Easter?” Looking mortified he responded “NO! I don’t want to bake a rabbit into a cake – gross!”

• Being a brand new big brother at (almost) 3 yrs old, my son’s first question when meeting his baby sister was, “When is she going to grow her penis?

• In the 7th grade, while driving home from school, my son said, with no emotion or expression, “I want to go to college in Russia.” Surprised, I asked why. His reply? “So, I can see home from school.”