It really shouldn't be hard work ...

Firstly, a little background knowledge ...
Being a parent of a special needs child suddenly changed my life. I am a mother of three children and my youngest son Archie was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy in early August 08 although I had been warned of the possibility in the April. Since then, my life has spiraled into worlds I didn't realise existed and I have met some amazing people both parents to other special needs children and health professionals that have been working close with us to help Archie develop to the best of his ability.

One of the groups he has attended since last April came to a halt 2 weeks ago as places were limited and he had already benefitted from two terms. He attended on a Monday and Thursday afternoon to the hospital where the specially trained nursery nurses did a wonderful job of providing his physio, occupational and speech therapy. This as you can imagine eased the strain on me a lot as it gave me time where I knew he was getting the care and I didn't have to worry too much. Unfortuately, there is nothing else close by with anything similar.

We now attend the over 18 months playgroup that runs at the Childrens Centre at my local hospital which Archie attended before the therapy group began. The group is ran by the same set of nursery nurses and has alot more children attending so it is not one on one like the other group. It also has a wider range of special needs children. I was looking forward to going back to this group as I enjoy meeting new parents and getting to know new children and their needs.

I attended the group this afternoon and Archie enjoyed it (although he was a little bit off and did push another child which shocked me) and as usual, the parents got half an hour drink time at the end of the group where the nursery nurses look after the children.

Secondly my problem ...

Other than the parent I know from the therapy group and one other parent, I felt it extremely hard to make conversation with anyone as I would try and start it up and it just didn't seem to flow. At one point, it felt as though the 7 of us were in silence for over 5 minutes. Surely parents who have an extremely strong common interest (their children with additional needs) should be able to share their stories and experiences, voice their opinions and ask any advice from the other parents. Hopefully it is because they are all new to the group and need a little time to feel at ease.

I have decided to stick with it until Christmas and if it still has that awkward feeling, I am going to look at getting Archie into a playgroup and asking his physiotherapist to train up the staff. I will just have to see how things go.