Backpack? Check
Notebook? Check
Pencil Case? Check
Nervous Tears? Check
Many parents get emotional for their kids’ first days of school. For Maria Palacios, disability activist and writer, her tears spawned both from her history as being the disabled girl at school who was stared at by her peers and her secret wish to protect her child just a bit longer from a world that sees his or her mom as different and imperfect.
She felt like she had to prepare herself for the potential shame her child would feel at being the one with the disabled parent among their peers. Mother and child rolled into class and after a quick hug, Maria departed so her own tears wouldn’t be detected.
After school, her little one came home with a big smile and a stick figure drawing of the two of them; rolling her wheelchair into a smiling sun. This was Maria’s turning point. She knew her child was prepared for the inevitable moment when their classmates ask:
“What’s wrong with your mom?”
Share this with your favorite parent rolling their kids to school.