The Bizarro World of Parenting a Disabled Child

Sometimes being a dad to a disabled child just makes my head spin. On the one hand, you have the disability to contend with - on the other hand, you are almost granted a privileged status in society.

For example:

- With our disabled placard we don't have to pay to park in public spaces. That's right, we don't have to feed the meter - EVER. We can park in green zones as long as we want - and of course, there are all those blue spaces right up front.

- Whenever we go to an amusement park, one adult gets in free as Annie's escort

- When we go to Disneyland, Sea World, etc we don't have to wait in line for rides - we go in the exit

- Next month, Annie is going to have her first surf lesson through Life Rolls On and it's FREE (did I mention lunch is included?)

- If Annie takes to surfing the way we expect she will, there is another free surf/scuba program in our area called Wheels to Water that we plan on checking out

All that to say, as a parent you spend your days agonizing with, dealing with and trying to overcome this horrible disability and then, "Oh yay! Free parking!" Sometimes it makes my head spin.

I was explaining my thoughts to the wife yesterday and I quipped, "We should get a bumper sticker that reads, 'Spina Bifida - We're just in it for the free parking'". The wife had two excellent responses.

1) Would you trade all the perks if it meant your child could be able-bodied? Of course. In fact, I would give up all the perks just to have the disability transferred from her to me.

2) Our daughter is in a wheelchair - throw us a bone for Pete's sake - and we will accept just about every bone thrown

But it is a weird road to be on sometimes . . . . a "best of times - worst of times" sort of existence.