Parents ask for tolerance when dining out with kids with special needs
Visiting a restaurant as a family is often one of life’s little pleasures. Parents get the night off from cooking and cleaning the kitchen, and children learn important lessons on manners and behaving in public.
But for the families of children with special needs, including autism, the cost of a dinner out can include stares and criticism from others and sometimes a battle to have their child treated with patience and respect.
“For parents of children with special needs, we feel like we’re walking on eggshells when we’re out,” said Lauren Yaghlegian of South Lake Tahoe, whose 10-year-old son, Keegan, has autism. She and her husband try to take Keegan to a restaurant at least once a month so he is used to being in public.
Read more here: Parents ask for tolerance when dining out with kids with special needs | TahoeDailyTribune.com.
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About The Author
Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts is founder of Support for Special Needs and has been a regular contributor since its inception in May 2010. A mom to two kids with special needs, she didn't want other parents to feel what is the often isolating world of raising a child (or two!) with disabilities. Her kids had kidney transplants at the age of eight and will need liver transplants in the future as a result of ARPKD/CHF. They both have vision disorders and learning disabilities.
I remember when my wife and I took our daughter out to a restaurant for the first time. It was Olive Garden, and we were with my parents as well. My daughter had a tracheostomy and feeding tube at that time, and the suction machine for the trach was like a jet engine taking off combined with the sound of vacuuming up gravel. I felt so embarrassed – not because of my daughter, so much as just because people stared like, how dare I make such noise! I was ruining their dinner. The nerve. But I got over that quickly. Pretty soon I remembered that it’s my daughter that’s important to me, not some stranger’s approval.
Good for you, Paul!!