A Parent Pledge
This was written by Lee Caggiano and Susan Short for parents
at a FRIENDS Workshop.
Because we recognize that parents
need to become strong supporters of their children who stutter,
and because we are advocates for our children, ensuring the right
of each to become a strong confident and assertive individual who is allowed
to achieve all he or she is capable of becoming….
- We will
understand that we did not have the power to cause stuttering
in our children. Stuttering is the fault of no one: it is not
our fault as parents, it is not the fault of our children.
- We
will stop referring to stuttering as a weakness or abnormality
and begin to view it as a challenge, for ourselves and for our
children. As we accept this challenge, we begin to see that
stuttering can change our lives in meaningful ways.
- We will make the choice
to love and appreciate our children for the remarkable people
they are right now.
- We will listen to what our children say rather
than to how they say it.
- We will understand that stuttering
has become a part of, our lives, increasing the need for each
of us to be flexible, curious, and open to new possibilities
for ourselves and for our children.
- We choose to stay in the
present rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the
future.
- We will respect our children, encouraging them to make
their own decisions, as each becomes his or her own "best
therapist."
- We understand our role as an encourager of
our children, trusting in their abilities to become independent,
productive, happy people whose identity includes, but is not
limited by their stuttering.
- We trust in our ability to become
advocates for our children, learning all we can about stuttering
and the resources available to our children and to ourselves.
- We
understand that as individuals we are able to choose to be happy
rather than unhappy. We are responsible for feeling good about
ourselves as parents and to communicate to our children that
we feel good about them.
This article is from Reaching Out, December 2004
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