Additional Needs

I Will Never Predict His Future

Posted by Amy Sweeney on 14th January 2019 Additional Needs, Disabilities

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I will never, EVER predict my son’s future.

EVER.

Many have tried to, mainly the professionals who have come across him, if they don’t know him already, all I have to do is tell them that he has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and it’s like they think they know everything about him.

I have been told “he will never...” fill in the blanks yourself, there’s a huge list!

Recently at our paediatrician appointment, his weight was brought up in conversation as he hadn’t gained as much as expected.

I was quite surprised and asked if this was maybe due to him using up more energy with all his physio that he does.

I was told that it’s probably because he won’t eat as well and as much as other children as his age.

I laughed, like actually laughed out loud, I didn’t really mean to but it just came out!

I went on to tell his paediatrician that he eats so much better than his fussy sister and has no trouble with his food at all!

I’ll tell you exactly what he said next:

“Well, with his cerebral palsy he won’t eat as well, you probably don’t notice it because you’re just used to it”

Yes. Seriously.

I didn’t say any more, I was in no mood for an argument at that time but it made me wonder why people seem to think they know what my son can and can’t do because he has cerebral palsy.

He has already achieved so much more that people ever predicted he could and just today he even learned to roll from back to front all by himself.

HUGE milestone, I still feel a bit emotional about that one!

Yes, he has cerebral palsy and yes, all 4 limbs are affected, he does struggle with a lot of things but he works incredibly hard and I have no doubt that he will continue to surprise everyone.

So when people ask me “will he ever sit up?” “will he ever walk?” “Will he be able to live independently when he’s older?”

I tell them that I can’t predict his future.

Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to because that’s for him to decide.

One thing I do know though, he will never give up and one way or another he will get where he wants to go and I’ll be behind him every step of the way.