Trust me....I'm the mom

Let me start this blog off by stating, I am very grateful that I have two wonderfully “perfect” children. I know that the issue I am going to write about is not that big of a deal. I will love my children no matter what hurdles come our way. And I am well aware there will be hurdles. This is just my first.

For those of you that aren’t aware, Oliver’s teacher was concerned about his speech. Here is our quick conversation we had as I was on my way out the door after class. I also had 2 impatient bundled up kids waiting for me:

Miss Alice:“Are you concerned about Oliver’s speech?”

Me: “No, why” Miss Alice: “can you understand him, because I can’t?”. Me: “Yes” Miss Alice: “okay, we can wait and revisit the issue in the spring if need be”.

Done deal. HECK NO. I turned into crazy and obsessive mom. I scoured the internet for hours trying to find “normal” speech guidelines. I think there are many people in our lives that are sick of hearing “did you understand what he just said?” I think the worst part is that it made me doubt my parenting skills. Could he really be that behind and I am just unaware of his shortcomings? I have never been one to obsess with milestones. My philosophy is that every kids develops at his own pace, but the fact that a very educated, experienced, well meaning teacher brought it up, made me think I there may be an issue. I tried really hard to convince myself there was not a problem and just let it go, but I couldn’t. I lost a lot of sleep. Finally, I called the school early intervention a couple weeks ago to schedule an assessment. What could it hurt? Today a very nice lady came to our ECFE to evaluate Oliver’s speech. She observed him for awhile and then played with him when I left the room. I was in the other room when she left so she called me a few hours later. “Your son is no where close to qualifying for special ed,” she started with. “I KNEW IT.” She said he did a great job during the evaluation. She was impressed with his vocabulary and his ability to stay focused. She will be closing the case. That is exactly what my mom instinct was telling me. I just needed some validation. Ok lesson learned. He is my child and I do know him best. Take that Miss Alice.

ps. Trust me, I know my children are by no means perfect, but in my eyes they will always be.