bullying

[Guest guest]

Just my .02 on bullying, from my experience,

I am extremely lucky in that I have never had anyone degrade or bully myself

around because of my CMT or for any other reason. Or at least never a kid. I

have always found that my peers were very respectful of my disability. They

might be curious or not know exactly if I had needed to be treated

differently, but from my perspective, I have always been treated respectfully.

Granted,

there have been some odd questions over the years. Once, a girl asked my

little sister (and as with all sisters, we haven't always gotten along), what

it

felt like to have a mom and a sister who were retarded. My sisters reply to

that was " have you ever talked to my Mom or sister? You'd know they weren't

if you were. " I've been lucky in that all the people around me that I am close

to are extremely sensitive and protective of me and help in every way that i

can.

The only person that I have ever had real problems with is the owner of my

farm back home. We have a therapeautic riding program and a non-handicapped

riding program. I ride with the regular, non handicapped program. Ironically

enough, the owner of my farm has multiple handicaps herself. She has asthma, and

is allergic to horses and hay. But, she does it anyway czu this is what she

loves. However, she wants to put me into a bubble. She has been

overprotective of me and tends to identify me by my handicap. So when I

succeed, it is not

due to any natural talent of my own, it is because I have " worked past my

handicap " and when I don't succeed, " well, you shouldn't be surprised, you have

a handicap. " For a while, I truly believed that I would never be a good

rider. At that barn, I was never allowed to ride any of the challenging horses.

Boy, will she be surprised when I show up with my new horse this summer! He's

a seven year old off the track Thoroughbred. And, I can ride him just fine.

Anyway, sorry for my rant and rave. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that

I've had more problems with adults than kids. Realizing that everyone's

situation is different, I've found that most kids ask questionis when they don't

know any better. The adults should.

Liz