Observations in IPADDUnite

[Guest guest]

In the short time I have been accessing IPADDUnite I have seen many,

many conversations regarding many areas of disabilities. Sometimes I

just file them in my IPADD folder without really reading them because

most do not really benefit my son. It is always difficult to please

all the people all the time but we all need to sit down and thank our

lucky starts we still have the right to freely express our thoughts.

Many countries in this world do not have that luxury.

I feel this site is more for exchange of information, and therapy.

It is a way to get it out, share and hear our thoughts and hopefully

someonelse has something to share in return that will make us feel

better about things and or open a door too information for us that we

could not open before.

Seeing the struggles and conflicts is really an eye opener that

really reinforces my thoughts that you cannot please all the people

all the time. Everyone is struggling for their piece of the pie and

you know what, there just is not enough to go around.

As a southern Illinois resident, within the state I see this a lot of

inconsistancies. Most of the people in the group have issues,

meetings, gatherings that are for the Chicago Metropolitan Area.

People in the northern part of the state have and always had access

to more than the southern part of the state yet that area is the area

that seems to complain the most. In the southern part of the state

we have to fight just to get information about benefits and many

times we do not recieve the correct information. Like it or not the

basis is truly political no matter how you look at it.

We all need to just count our blessings, sit back and see how lucky

we realy are. In being involved in all this I have to keep reminding

myself too because I get all involved in the 'what about me' syndrome

at times. I see how much people in the northern part of the state

benefit from all the programs and I too become involved in looking

for a way to gain access to these 'free benefits' but nothing is

truly 'free'

For us the Home Based Program has been a wonderful thing and much

better than any of the mismanaged workshops here in this part of the

state but then I am an active parent in my sons life, striving to

help him become as independant as he can be. I have never treated

him as a child or lessor person, I have always treated him as I would

any other person, with high expectations and goals. Yes, I do

understand too that our situation is different from many others which

I thank God for that.

Until this year, I did not know our state was so low on the list of

states that provide benefits for disabled. I thought this struggle

was just the way it is suppossed to be, although I had heard about

other states that provide more lavishly for special abled and I just

stop and think, the grass is always greener on the other side of the

fence.

We too have had to prioritize, decide what is in our best interest,

for a future.

Just my thoughts...

Kathy

Mother of