sparkle me up

After I wrote yesterday, I spent some serious time on the blogs written by Moms of girl babies with Ds. I felt so much better.

Those little girls are darling, Ds or not. They don't have dull eyes, they look sparkly and fun. I can deal with that!

And those Moms... wowza. I was reading one blog that I liked in particular, Living for the Love - and really liked all that she's got to say.. and my eyes were rounding over her post on the IEP. That's just crazy, having to deal with a school system that is telling her what her kid should do.

From that angle, I guess I am in a better place than a lot of other people when dealing with government bureaucracy. I take those same IEP's (Individual Educational Plans) and help put them into an IPE (Individual Plan of Employment). I don't make the whole plan of course, DOR (Department of Rehabilitation) does that; I just help them with the career assessment portion of it. My job is to implement the IPE's - to the very end. Until the participant is doing what their IPE says they will do. Be a teacher. A doctor. A lawyer. A biochemical engineer. A social worker. Whatever.

It's a mind-bender for me to think that these little kids - 3 years old! - have IEP's! I mean, that's nuts! If a child didn't have a disability, no parent would be expected to develop an IEP - and it's probably a good thing, because most parents don't have their shit together to know what to put for it. And I'm not of a mind that any parent should. Beyond basic goals like growing and exploring and developing their skill sets and stuff, that is. Putting really clear and strong parameters on what you want your kid to do and become seems pretty controlling to me.

I thought that Mom in her blog handled it with a lot of grace and has excellent sense. I hope I'd be able to do the same if put in the same situation.