Is Inclusion Always the Best Choice?

As many know my youngest child Omega was born with Down Syndrome. We chose not to have him participate as we did not feel that to have countless people in and out of our home would be beneficial to our family. This may or may not have been the right choice at the time, either way we stuck by our decision. Omega is almost 4 years old now and has started a special education program at my children's elementary school this past week that has been fully integrated with the atypical preschool classes (yes more than one class). I am a strong advocate of inclusion but not at the cost of my son's education and care.
I have never been one to exclude my son from things we do as a family. We go camping, Omega is with us. We go to the drive in, Omega is with us. He is no less equal than my atypical children, and to be honest his having Down Syndrome most times is a non issue. To many this may seem like an issue, that he should get more attention, we should coddle him through every life experience no matter how big or small. My husband and I have included him since birth but now I have given over half of my control to a school whose system is falling.
There are parents out there who would love for their special needs child to be in such an inclusive program as Omega is in but in this, I would like a little exclusivity. This is his first introduction to being away from me or my husband, in any group setting away from his siblings and their friends (especially one this large), Am I a bad parent to unenroll him all together? My only alternative would be to pull him from one school and put him in another. He goes to the same school as my atypical children, which any parent knows to have all your children in the same school is a blessing in itself. I am almost leaning towards the benefit outweighing the risk of putting him somewhere else.
As parents we have to make tough decisions on a daily basis. Once you live in a certain school district you don't want to have to think twice about the school your kids are attending, but now more than ever the individual school needs just as much consideration as the school district. All schools are NOT created equal. I could go on for hours about why one school in a district is different than another but we don't have time for that. We will just write it off as disenfranchisement of our kids. Depending on the school your children go to, someone's child will be left behind.

Where Have You Been?

I know it has been a while since my last post, almost three months to the day without a peep. As all parents I've been tangled up in the throws of summer break and a house full of kiddos running almost rampant. Having four young kiddos, and three that I basically took care of the entire summer, my hands were full to say the least. Through the struggles and trials we've all seemingly made it out OK.

I have always been a pretty open book, living through cancers, being disabled but not classified by our wonderful government as such, the means in which I provide for my family. Everything I do is or can be common knowledge. People judge me for this practice, saying I like to put my business out for people but that is a deep misconception. I talk about what's relevant. MOST of the things that I am dealing with are directly affected by our society.

I have several health problems that will affect me for the rest of my life and I am pretty much left to my own devices. My husband is the breadwinner of our large family (seven of us all together), and we are seemingly plagued into the lower income level but at the same time making too much for any notable assistance from any governing entities. We live in the middle of the American double standard and there is little we are able to do about it. This is what motivated me to create my own system of providing for my family.

Some may think if it's so hard financially for us why can't we rely on the state Medicaid system or Obamacare? Long story short is that we don't qualify for either yet both say we qualify for the other. It's the American double standard at its finest. This is my life. These are the things that motivated me to not only create own system but to also write about it.

I know that I have gone off topic, these are the things that have occupied all of my time since my last visit into your life. I have been put through the ringer, have given every ounce of my being to my children and my surrogate children, and have struggled to get out of bed but at the end of it all, I, no WE have made it through to the other side OK.