Special Needs Parents Have An Extra Special Set Of Parenting Skills

So today, a friend posted on Facebook the struggle of packing for family vacation. Another friend chimed in with “I always forget chargers!”

If you’re a special needs parent, you’re probably thinking, “I would never forget the charger!”

Seriously, that’s like a cardinal sin in the special needs parenting world. You always bring the charger. The backup battery pack. An extra set of headphones.

And I realized, dang, if we special needs parents aren’t handy in a pinch. We know all the secrets, like…

Need some coffee? We don’t even need an app for it. Just put us outside, and we’ll sniff out the closest Starbucks, Tim Hortons, or Dunkin within a 10-mile radius.

Have to find a restroom? Yeah, we’re all over that. We’ve mapped out where every toilet is in town, and then some.

The exit? Oh, we scoped that out the moment we walked in the door. Follow us in case of fire — we’ll be the first ones out.

Hungry? We have a snack handy, because no one in our charge will ever be allowed to go hungry. If the snack has already been consumed, that’s okay — we know all the drive-thrus.

Feeling sniffly? We have tissues.

Cut your finger? I’ve got 14 different-sized Band-Aids in my wallet.

Headache? Do you want something for the pain or just an Advil? Cause we got that.

Need to pack for three weeks in Europe in a carry-on? We are your people. Because we pack like that every dang day.

Is there a hostage situation? Move over, we got this. I mean, I’ve had to talk my tween out of the girls’ department with all its Frozenwear because nothing was in her size. Nothing is more stressful than that. Nothing.

And yes, we can pull cell phone chargers, power cords for laptops, and headphones out of thin air.

We haz skillz.