Differences are normal
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Editor:
Recently I was over visiting at a friend’s home, that I have known for years; and thought I knew well. She was babysitting her grandkids and I gave them a couple of straws to play with. I made a comment about how my grandkids like them just to chew on, a nervous habit that I have seen many young children exhibit. My friend then told me that her grandkids didn’t do that, that they were “normal.”
My first impulse of course was shocked anger and a moment where I thought about retaliating in a very humanly emotional way — after all, I’m no saint. I restrained myself, because I did not want to disrespect her in front of her grandkids.
My grandkids do have differences; we all have differences, that’s what makes life on our planet interesting. My oldest granddaughter has a neurological disorder called Apraxia of Speech, this affects the muscle’s in the jaw and tongue area, resulting in difficulties and delays in speech. Since my 7-year-old granddaughter has learned how to say a few words more recently, I have a personal faith that she will speak much more as she gets older. My youngest granddaughter has ADHD (Attention Deficit Hypertension Disorder), so many children as well as adults are diagnosed with this disorder.
There is nothing wrong with any human being having differences. There have been times in a previous job working specifically with people with developmental disabilities, that I also had plenty of things to learn about how I look at and treat others with differences. Sometimes I think people are just in too much of a hurry these days and forget to just look and feel, before they react or speak. I thought my current experience with my friend (maybe), was a good topic for our community since I have witnessed things like this before here in the Mission Valley.
We can all learn from our experiences at any age or from any walk of life, and hopefully I will be able to speak with my friend again at some point.
Kathy A. Boever
Polson
