My husband and I attend the launch last week at the HOP (Houses of Parliament). We had some wonderful speakers and I was all ready to meet and greet, network, and generally give it the large. Unfortunately, my good intentions were thwarted when 16 year old Josh got up to speak. He spoke an eloquent speech and even up to then I was people watching, drinking in the atsmosphere and enjoying myself.

Then it happened - our host for the afternoon, Mr. Innis MP got up and thanked Josh for his speech and also, more importantly thanked his Dad for all his help and support with Josh. I just collapsed then and all the bravado I had when I first walked into the members dining room went sailing up the Thames on a very slow tug boat. Up until that point, no one had thanked a parent and even I felt, of course, why should we be thanked, they are our children and we are duty bound to do our best. The fact though that Josh's father, for 16 years, has (I am sure with a lot of family support) helped and guided his son, to bring him to that point, where he could speak to over 200 people, made me feel very small. We are only three and half years in with our son(who will be four in December) and when I think of how knacked I am now with it all, how do I possibly keep this momentum up for the next 10 years at least?

So there we are, I left the HOP and went in the nearest pub for a large Jack and coke and literally cried my eyes out. My husband was slightly bemused by the whole thing as he has never seen me like this before. I am the one who will talk to anyone, work the room etc. but not on this occasion.

So - after all that, can I add my thanks to Josh's Dad, I felt very humble after your son's speech and what a credit you are to your son!

Regards

DIL

MAKE SCHOOLS MAKE SENSE

I am thrilled to bits to be part of the Make Schools Make Sense campaign and to add my voice (small though it is!) to the thousands of parents throughout the UK who are trying to do the best they can for an autistic son or daughter.

We have had triumphs and setbacks along the way and I hope to be able to share my thoughts with whoever reads these blogs. I am quite new to this lark myself and it may take me a while to get into the swing of all the jargon, so please bear with me if you can.

A brief background - we have a three and half year old son who is on the Spectrum and we found out when he was just two years old. At present we are looking at schools for him and he has a proposed statement.which we are negotiating at the moment. We have found the statementing experience to be a positive one so far.

We are off to the Campaign Launch tomorrow and my invitation is in the fruit bowl (with all the other important stuff) ready to go.


Regards

DIL

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