Easy To Love But Hard to Raise

Guest post: For Special Needs Kids, “The Golden Rule,” Rules

Adrienne Ehlert Bashista — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:03:08 +0000

Erin MacMillan-Ramirez is a graduate of the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education Master’s in Teaching online program which has recently added on a Special Education Program. She lives in Houston, Texas and is currently working on a book about Autism and the education system in America.

Taming the stress monster (If you can’t change the child, then change the environment)

Adrienne Ehlert Bashista — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:42:32 +0000

As someone who has edited a book about parenting children with invisible special needs like ADHD, ADD, OCD, Anxiety, Autism, FASD, and any number of other alphabet-soup diagnoses, I’ve noticed something curious: people have started asking for my expert opinion about parenting.

A Not-So-Perfect Summer Redux

Lorraine — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:36:44 +0000

Today I’m reposting a blog I shared here almost exactly a year ago. Only a little has changed since then, for better or worse, mostly that I had knee surgery and have been recovering nicely. But I’m also much less worried about how the summer will go and how my boys will handle moving into the next grade in the fall. Entering into summer and full-time parenting with more confidence and fewer worries, who could ask for anything more? But now it’s time to come up with my focus goals for each child. Wish me luck!

Are We Really Listening?

Laura Grace Weldon — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:29:33 +0000

Wikimedia Commons

“Do you really want a dead cat on your desk?”

When a teacher took a parent’s phone call at the end of another busy school day, she was taken aback by the question. She couldn’t figure out why a first grader in her class came home telling his mother that their recently deceased family pet had to be on the teacher’s desk the next morning.

Read more on Are We Really Listening?…

Helping Each Other

Lorraine — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:26:31 +0000

I love this blog, our Facebook page, and the book, Easy to Love But Hard to Raise because they all focus on connecting and supporting parents of children with invisible disabilities, mental illnesses, and brain-based special needs. Together, we are stronger, wiser, and hopefully a little more satisfied with this defining life experience of parenting kids who need more.

OCD and Seasonal Exam Hell

Barbara Claypole White — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:52:31 +0000

My garden is exploding into color; the hummingbirds are buzzing; and my son is in full-blown test anxiety. ‘Tis the season I hate.

As an obsessive-compulsive, my teenager operates from a high base line of anxiety. Yes, one of his favorite authors is Stephen King, and yes, he and his buddy enjoy screaming through horror movies like a pair of preschoolers on a sugar rush. But one “study for math test” scrawled in his assignment notebook, and I’m handing him Klonopin before we’ve pulled out of the school parking lot. More often than not, I’m thinking, “Damn, if I weren’t driving, I could have a happy pill, too.”

Guest blog: What’s WRONG with you?

Adrienne Ehlert Bashista — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:54:43 +0000

“What is WRONG with you??” is exactly what you really want to say a lot of the time when your kid is a lawless little darling like McDiesel. It’s pretty much a reflex. So it’s the hardest thing tostop saying. And so we all say it—me, Husband (Number One), big brother—even though we shouldn’t.

Going on a book tour! A book BLOG tour, that is!

Adrienne Ehlert Bashista — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:09:32 +0000

Since Easy to Love but Hard to Raise: Real Parents, Challenging Kids, True Stories, was published as of February 1, things have been going GREAT for the book, the editors, and the writers who contributed to our collection of essays.

What’s Good About Challenges

Laura Grace Weldon — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:21:30 +0000

Escalera al cielo by David Oliva

Interesting problems and exciting risks are life’s calisthenics. They stretch us in directions we need to grow. Children are particularly oriented this way. They think up huge questions and search for the answers. They face fears. They puzzle over inconsistencies in what is said and done around them. They relentlessly challenge themselves to achieve social, physical, or intellectual feats that (from the child’s perspective) seem daunting. They struggle for mastery even when dozens of attempts don’t provide them any success. It’s a testament to courage that they continue to try.

Guest post: What do you “( )” about? What do you “–” about?

Adrienne Ehlert Bashista — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:24:46 +0000

In November, my five year old son was diagnosed with a severe mixed receptive-expressive language disorder. I have since come to recognize just how difficult it is to write or speak effectively about this condition. I want to be rigorous in describing the genetic causes, the symptoms, and the prognosis of this disorder and unsentimental in capturing the significant outlays in time, money, and energy that treating our son has required. But as I attempt to explain this condition to friends and family members who are almost uniformly unfamiliar with this disorder, I am acutely aware of my communication failures: my lack of fluidity, my tendency to start and stop, to retract and begin again. I am inserting parentheses and dashes into every sentence I utter or write.