"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters"

One of the smartest and most sophisticated women of all time (in my opinion) is Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. At her funeral, her son John described three of her attributes as: the love of words, the bonds of home and family, and the spirit of adventure. She has been quoted as saying: “If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters.”

Some of you may think me crazy for taking this quote literally, and perhaps a little autistic, but you know what? She’s so right! My curriculum work makes no difference to the world if I have failed my son. Spending time working day and night and weekends in no way helped my bank account and it most certainly did not help Dayton’s development. It’s time to take a seriously hard look at my priorities here. While yes,educating adults for their future careers is super important, my child’s education is even more so important. Failing to re-direct my focus on Dayton’s education may be crucial to his life, and will my employers help him in any way? Most likely not. Furthermore, receiving no recognition for all the hard work I’ve put into making the program into what it is today is kind of insulting.

So, while on medical leave, I will take time to look at my options with Dayton and how to serve him best.

Obviously, since our latest incident with his school (his aid thought it a good idea to bend his thumb back until he fell to this knees in front of his class mates), this means I will focus my energies into finding Dayton a better equipped school to deal with his needs, and daycare is a MUST!!! If I have no time to myself to recharge my batteries, I will not be the optimum mom. I also want to contact the Autism Society of Manitoba and get us both some support there, in the form of play groups where Dayton can be accepted for who he is and how he thinks. If one does not exist, my next step is to create one myself.

I also want to visit our local YMCA and see what programs they may have for both of us to enjoy. Winter time is super cold out here, with temperatures dropping to mid -40 degrees Celsius. I’m a fair weather kind of girl, and I’m sure even Jackie O would agree that perhaps we can skip the outdoor play in these cold temperatures.

While I love my job and enjoy teaching and adore the college as well as my co-workers, I will need to make a schedule for myself to continue working.
No more bringing work home. Work will remain at the college, my home life begins immediately after work. Also, no more volunteer hours.  The volunteer hours got me no recognition at work, but you'd better believe my little guy will give me OODLES of recognition for all those hours being given to him!  Love my babe!  He's awesome!!!  And he deserves my time...


Consider yourselves hugged!

Lou

You'd better believe, Dayton is the priority number one in my life!  He's just so adorable!