My Wonderland

 Well… bear with me folks, I have updates😂 First of all, the first two weeks of high school have been wonderful!! Kaedyn has made some gorgeous new friends, he’s feeling calm, settled, and we’ve noticed such a significant shift in his mood that afternoons are no longer a full stew of stress. Last year looked very different... Home and therapy became Kaedyn’s safe places to let everything out,  sometimes becoming his punching bags too. School just wasn’t lighting him up anymore; he was ready for something that felt more mature, more his pace. So the rest of us learned to step back and let him work through that defiance… He’s even been willing to negotiate his scale of niceness towards Kal… (and to be clear, Kal is the absolute nicest — Kaedyn just happens to find encouragement deeply suspicious.) He's been loving his new OT, Sam, and is quite happy to kick me out and lay all the goss on her... It's my guess that he's talking shit about all of us hahaha Of course, there h...

If You’re Like Me, the Family Organiser... You probably find yourself thinking, “I should write all this down in case something happens to me…” Well, this is my shareable list, the non-therapy stuff I wish I’d had in one place. The real-world, practical gems that make life a little easier when you’re juggling everything. Consider this a gift to all the other parents holding it together behind the scenes.  I figured it was time to write all this down. Because when you’re parenting a child with a disability, just knowing stuff becomes its own kind of survival skill. And yet, most of the best info isn’t in any handbook, it’s just in the abyss and you have to hope you come by it. So here it is. A working list of the helpful, practical, sometimes obscure things I’ve picked up along the way. Some of them might seem small, but trust me: in a world that’s not built for our kids, the small wins matter. HOLIDAYS! And suprisingly cheap or even free! Ronald McDonald Houses These aren’t just ...

We're barely halfway through 2025, and already families are being told that enrollments for 2026 school year is full.  Yep... full! Education Support classrooms, designed for students who cannot attend mainstream are at capacity. If your child didn’t get in, the door is closed.  So where do they go? For children who are medically complex, disabled, or neurodivergent,.but not a “mainstream fit” what’s the answer? Because right now, the answer seems to be: There isn’t one. We talk about education like a menu of equal options: public, private, online, Montessori, homeschooling. But for many families of kids with disabilities, there’s no real choice. So families are left “choosing” homeschooling not out of lifestyle preference, but out of sheer necessity. It’s not flexible learning. It’s survival. Parents become teachers, aides, therapists, case managers. They coordinate everything from literacy to mobility aids, all while trying to work, raise siblings, and stay afloat. And they ...

We talk a lot about inclusive cities or smart cities. Buzzwords like accessibility, universal design, and diversity are tossed around in policy documents and press releases as if they’re already achieved. But here’s the truth: If your city doesn’t have adequate Changing Places facilities, then your city is not inclusive. It’s not accessible. And it’s definitely not modern. Changing Places are fully accessible bathrooms designed for people with complex disabilities. They go well beyond standard accessible toilets and include: An adult-sized, height-adjustable change table, a  ceiling hoist system, e nough space for a wheelchair user and multiple carers, a  privacy screen or curtain.  In short: basic dignity. If you’ve never needed a Changing Place, chances are you’ve never checked whether one exists nearby. But for families like mine, our entire day hinges on finding one. And even then, we are bracing ourselves. Because like most parents of a disabled child, I don’t just h...