Inspiration

Today is my husband's birthday and to celebrate we took the kids to the new California Academy of Sciences Museum in San Francisco. It was great, though it was also a complete madhouse. Anyway, as we wound our way around the aquarium, we passed a woman helping her young daughter navigate through the crowds in her reverse walker. I couldn't help myself, I stared.

I have never seen a kid in a walker out in public. Never. I don't know why. I just haven't. And since having Drake, I've thought about it a lot. Why haven't I seen a parent with a child in a walker at the grocery store? At the park? Walking around the neighborhood? I've really started to question it. Because I know when Drake gets his walker, he is going to be taking it to the park, the grocery store, and on walks down our street. Because that is where I am going to be and where Lucy will be, too.

I have read posts from other parents who talk about the hard work of getting a kid in and out of a walker, of carrying the walker AND the kid, of the emotional drain of other people's stares and questions. I wonder if these things have made the parents of children with special needs in my neighborhood stay home.

But today, seeing that mother carve a path through the crowds so her child could walk up to see the fish made my day. And she didn't even seem too worse for wear for it either!