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Originally Posted by Lasereth
Ok so everyone expects me to have a kid with DS to talk about it or have experience dealing with people who have DS.
Oh wait I do have experience with DS.
My friend's sister has DS. I watched his sister nearly ruin his childhood. I watched the sister with DS totally ruin the older sister's childhood. Want to go out to eat with friends? Too bad, stay home with DS sister. Want to go shopping? Too bad, need to save money for meds for DS sister. Want to move out when you're 18? Too bad, stay at home working part-time so there's someone to watch the DS sister. Want to go out in public? Too bad, the DS sister can't act correctly in public. Need money? Ok, so get a job! Whoops, can't work but part-time because the DS sister needs 24/7 care. The DS sister is an adult now and has the mind of a 3-year old (not exaggerating).
DS can and will have a negative impact on a family regardless of love and affection for a sibling or child. I lived with this family multiple times and saw how the DS sister affected them.
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DS wasn't the issue alone, it was how it was handled there-with the parents putting the caretaking and responsibility(read: guilt) on unprepared siblings. Yes, siblings should help out, watch out for each other, but not be made to stop living because a third has trouble doing so. That's not Down's, that's the parenting.
A childhood playmate of mine was retarded and while he hung out with all of us on the street, including his older brother, it was his mom who took care of him, not the 4 other siblings. Hell, we didn't even know David had anything wrong with him until my mom said he had. He was just another kid in the bunch to us.