Between the opthamologist, ENT and orthodontist, I still haven't gotten my Mother's day layout done! But, Danielle sent me this beautiful one of her and her son using our Everafter collection. Any mom can relate to the bond that Danielle talks about in this layout. It's that bond that has made me do SOOOOO many crazy things. And for some reason, many of them happen at doctor's offices. Maybe that's because that is where you spend a large portion of your life with small children!
To protect my son, Ethan, I became a liar. There, I said it. I admitted it. It's totally true!
Ethan is dyslexic, but I didn't know this or anything about it until the end of first grade. Dyslexic children almost always have delayed speech development. This was true with Ethan. He didn't actually say a word until after his second birthday.
Well, my next door neighbor had a baby just two weeks older than Ethan and so I was painfully aware that my child was behind hers. But, being his mother, I was convinced he was the smartest, most beautiful and most perfect child ever made and I didn't want anyone thinking otherwise.
I lied to my friends. I told them that he said lots of words at home, but he was just shy around people. I lied to my doctor. When asked at his one year appointment if he said at least 12 words, I said that I was sure it was close to that many.
When he got older I lied to his school teachers. In kindergarten and first grade, he couldn't learn to spell or read his name and so I made a little card with his name written on it that he could use to match up next to the names on the coat racks, homework folders, etc.... so that he could find his. I made another little card that I glued into his pencil box so that he could copy his name down.
They expected him to be able to read the color words. On the first day of first grade, there was a paper on his desk with shapes to color. Each shape had a color written on it and the child was to fill in the shape with that color. Right in his classroom, I showed him the color word on the crayon label and told him each crayon had a word on it that matched up with a word on the paper. In short, I taught my child how to cheat.
I might still be lying now, but his first grade teacher eventually realized, not only could he not read, he couldn't rhyme, he couldn't remember his friends names, he couldn't clap syllables and he couldn't remember sequences (the days of the week, months of the year, alphabet in order)..... I couldn't cover all that up!
Just so you know, when I learned that Ethan was dyslexic, and that lying wasn't actually going to help him, I got him the real help he needed. Now I can brag honestly! Although he still can't spell, remember sequences, or recall particular words.....he is in the sixth grade and reading on a high school level, and that's the truth!!
