The Holiday Season: A Time for Grief, Gratitude, and New Traditions

For parents of disabled children, the holiday season can be a tricky time of the year to navigate. We are often faced with managing extra schedules, taking on the mental load of making sure everyone has everything they need, and feeling a certain way when doing our holiday shopping knowing a toy isn't exactly "age appropriate" for our disabled children. On this episode of The Bitching and Bolusing Podcast, we discuss how all these things can leave us feeling drained, and how shifting our perspective can change the extra grief we feel during this season. It's important to not fit our children into the idea of who they would be were they not disabled, and sometimes that means making new traditions that differ from the ones we had when we were children ourselves. It's OK to start new traditions and to make life easier on yourself - even if that means saying "no" to family. Sometimes hosting is easier so that you don't have to bring 18 pieces of medical equipment, feeds, medications, etc, to someone else's house!