A Sad Day

Today was a pretty sad day for me. My 5 year-old son woke up this morning and after his regular routine of showering, getting dressed and eating breakfast, he was told to go grab his shoes and his brace so we could head off to school. For those who don't know the background, Parker had a stroke when he was born and has since had mild weakness on the right side of his body. The brace itself is actually quite concealed under his jeans, and if you didn't have the eye for his weakness, you wouldn't even know he needed it. In light of what could have been, Parker is very mild and we are happy to have seen him grow stronger (through therapy and the brace) without much complaining...until now. This morning as I was putting on his brace, he said he didn't want to wear it. Now he has had these mooods before because of the time it takes to put it on coupled against his urgency to get outside and play. But this morning, he told us that he was tired of explaining to the other kids why he had a brace. All of a sudden, he has become conscious of the brace making him different. Now my son, who has never been so self-conscious of this fact before, is aware of it and it is starting to impact him. I tried the whole "you are special" line, but he retorted that he didn't want to be special. I can't say that I blame him, either. I didn't want him to be special in a handicap way. Tell me of a parent who would want their kid to be in a brace versus a quarterback for UofM...OSU fans excluded. I love him so much and I just didn't want to see this day come. Now I have to be the bad guy that forces him into his brace everyday through tears and fits because I know it will be good for him in the long run. It just makes me a little sad.