Years ago there was a fabulous television commercial for Staples. The Christmas song is playing (sing along with me), It’s the most wonnnnn-derrrrr-fullll tome of year…..” and of course the camera pulls back to revel parents gleefully shopping for back to school supplies while showing the kids’ dour faces.
Click here for the commercial.
That time of year…….School’s open…..kids go back…..great, right? Well not really for us parents of kids with type 1 diabetes (T1D). But it does not have to be so stressful for you and/or your child.
After playing Drone-parent (what used to be helicopter-parent–hovering; what used to be diabetes-police parent) all summer, your child heads off, a little taller, a little more mature, toward the red carpet for kids (stole that from a commercial); the first day of school.
Where most parents, who do not have a child with diabetes, look forward to the new school year, parents to kids with T1D add two new words to their lives……HIGH ANXIETY.
From a guy who watched two kids go through school (with one child through every singe grade since age 2) may I offer a few tips on the school year.
1. 504 plan. If your child does not have one, get one. This plan is not just for the everyday things, they are for the unexpected things as well.
Here is a copy of the one we used, amend as needed.
and MAKE SURE NO ONE TELLS YOU THAT THEY UNDERSTAND and it is not needed…..it is your child’s right.
2. Feel free to send a quick note to all of your child’s teachers (yes, even in high school). Above all else make it an open line of communication to you.
3. First day/week is a mind blower for kids as well….when they come home, do not jump on them ‘asking about their numbers’. Ask them about their day, how was it, what did they like etc etc….trust me when I say the ‘diabetes stuff’ can wait a while.
4. By now you should have made time for the nurse and given her all of your child’s supplies. If not, call and ask her if you can drop off your child’s supplies to be kept in the health office. LABEL EVERYTHING with your child’s name, and have back-ups.
5. Relax. Now if you just dropped your child off at college I will change relax to have a drink. If you think you have anxiety in school and high school, just wait until you drop them off at college…..but we will save that for another day.
School’s Open……..Drive Carefully……and I do not mean only on the roads. Enjoy.
I am a diabetes dad.
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One reply on “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year………..School Opens; of Course.”
I actually went to school for almost 5 months and no one at school I was T1D. Yes, it was 1974 – 75. I was trying to make it all year, the result is a terrific official record that Says in angry large red pen “insulin diabetes no one told us”. I grew up to be a school district administrator so I love that. In fact today it one of the things I most proud of, so much that I got a copy and kept it at my office Yeah all kinds of kids, even those who refuse to tell the school nurse about being diagnosed T1D when they are 17, still grow up and that makes me ever hopeful.