Comments on: Where Are All the People with Down syndrome?

By: Jaida

Jaida — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 16:33:58 +0000

My son with Ds was born in Southern California in 2006 and we moved to Minnesota in 2010. I probably saw a total of three other people with Ds “in the wild” in that whole four years. Since we moved to MN? Everywhere. Seriously, everywhere. There is a huge support group community, there are four new kindergarteners starting at my son’s relatively small elementary school (who will join him and two other students with Ds). I see kids, young adults and adults everywhere. In CA I felt huge pressure to make sure my son was behaving in public, lest anyone attribute perfectly typical toddler behavior to Ds. Here, I am proud to be out and about with our family, and I would say on average I talk to at LEAST one other person with Ds or family member each week. I think about the difference constantly. Is it because there are more religious people in the Midwest and therefore more people that either forego testing or opt to keep fetuses diagnosed with special needs? I don’t know, but I do know that I feel so fortunate to have moved to a place where my son is so welcomed into the community.

By: Amysilverman

Amysilverman — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 21:28:41 +0000

Renee — I threw up EVERYT SINGLE day of both of my pregnancies.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:50:01 +0000

The questions about how our kids will manage adulthood are different, but not totally. I worry a lot, especially with this being Brennan’s senior year in high school. What kind of career can he have – he has one idea currently that is not realistic (for anyone) but I feel like shit discouraging it (it’s in the journalism world, so maybe you could talk him out of it?). Will he ever be able to drive? He says yes, but I told him that there’s the moral decision and not just the legal one (state of AZ is 3 months seizure free). Can he live on his own? Yes, probably, but he will probably either leave the nest slowly or one day just be gone and living in a swimming pool (we’re freaks about him swimming, so he’s already threatened to be in a pool every day once he turns 18).

I know two people with adult children with DS. One is the daughter of the woman married to my father-in-law (it’s complicated). She is in her early 20s and lives in something like a group home, and it appears to be working out. The other is the older brother of friends of Abby & Brennan. He’s about 30 and lives at home with his mom, step-dad, 17 year old sister, and 11 year old brother. He works in the kitchen of a local hotel. He takes the bus there. His parents are very chill about the whole situation (they aren’t Jewish, so maybe that’s part of the lack of being slightly neurotic about anything really – I nearly lost their youngest son once when I was watching him after school – some nice City of Phoenix people returned him). He may not go everywhere with the family, but that’s probably more about his work schedule. He definitely gets out.

It will be interesting (and hopefully not devastatingly sad) to see how our kids will grow and leave us (or not).

And, I am also jealous of the Ativan. My Xanax doesn’t work as well as I’d like.

By: Renee Ayres

Renee Ayres — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 15:28:14 +0000

Lauren is 15 and we take her everywhere with us. We have three daughters and we have never done anything different with her. I always thought the same thing. Where are all the awesome people with Down Syndrome?

A side note…I was very sick when I was pregnant. All three times I would have to pull over and throw up. One day I was thinking am I the only one that ever did this? I never see it with anyone else…

Great read!!

By: Leslie Kendall Dye

Leslie Kendall Dye — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 19:40:55 +0000

That’s weird, I just posted this to Facebook and it didn’t show up. Anyway, my math is terrible too but I know a little about odds and I know the odds of finding writing this lovely and touching on a blog on any day are very low! Thanks for the great read. And also, Ativan, you lucky thing!