Adding to Your Child’s Care Team

We have all heard the sayings like “choose kindness” or “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” I think these are great words to live by. I am all for treating everyone with kindness and respect. In my world, it goes a little further though.

I always treat everyone well because I never know when someone I meet is someone I may need to add to my team. Whether you call it a team, a tribe, or your herd, it doesn’t matter. If you are a parent of a child with a disability, you are always adding people to it.

I talk a lot about the different medical providers, social workers, and even teachers who were part of our daily lives. There were a lot of others to help us with Casey, too.

We had special photographers who knew how to work around our requests of low lighting, indoor setting and having Casey laying down in the photos.

We had a team of family members who would sew custom clothes, blankets, drool clothes– or whatever Casey needed that I couldn’t go pick up at the store. Having a handful of family members able to make g-tube covers and blankets for her wheelchair and seating was huge!

We also were lucky that one of Casey’s nurses did hair before she became a nurse. She would bring her gear with her a few times a year to trim Casey’s hair.

The list goes on and on. Every child will have their own unique needs. However, always be kind to everyone you meet. There is a really good chance that you will want to recruit a few people a year to your kid’s team. I know I did.

Even now that Casey is no longer here, I am still recruiting people every day for other families or for our nonprofit. Being kind is never a bad idea. If not for these reasons, maybe just for karma. Whatever the reason, I hope that you choose kindness every chance you get.

Learn more about building your child a Personal Network.