This post has a very special purpose. It focuses solely on the challenges of being special needs parent. As special needs parents, we all know that the challenges are well worth it and there are many positive as well but the goal here is to help the rest of the world better understand what we go through as parents.

One of the toughest parts of being a special needs parent is trying to get others to understand even a small percentage of what daily life is like for families with special needs children.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Autism, Downs Syndrome, ADHD, SPD or anything else. As a parent, your life is impacted in ways most can’t even begin to understand.

There’s no such thing as a level playing field when it comes to special needs families.

The world is largely unforgiving and doesn’t care how on some days, it’s literally just a struggle to survive. No one cares that you haven’t slept in days or that your child requires you 24/7/365.

There’s no holiday‘s or breaks. In fact, in many cases, the special needs parent will be doing this until the day they die. They will also spend everyday of their lives worrying about the day they will no longer be on this Earth to care for their child with special needs.

Everything that comes easy to most is a constant struggle for families with special needs children.

It sometimes takes an hour just to get shoes and socks on my youngest and I’ve given up on requiring him to wear clothes while he’s home.

I have to prepare three different meals for each meal of the day because each one of my kids have sensory issues that make it exceptionally challenging to feed them. They of course, don’t share the same challenges and food proclivities, so I have to treat each individually. The kicker is that I will often have to remake what I made because something was wrong with it.