One Of Many Talks

We initially chose to not have a sit-down formal discussion with Eli and Maddux about DS, but a few months into school, I had a fear that a child that saw Ruby may have some connection with DS and mention it to one of the kids, catching them off guard. In an effort to be proactively 'in charge' of the distributor of info for them, we brought it up during dinner one night. Nothing over the top, but just a 'hey, you know how ruby gets PT each week, that's because she has something called Down syndrome'. Very light, very generic, but we introduced the term. Since then we've had a handful of little conversations, but they've all been very little and not focusing on the science of it, or anything beyond Ruby right now.

 I got the opportunity this last week to be (hopefully) a calming voice for a local mom whose unborn child was recently diagnosed. Since that opportunity came to me via email while the kids were with me, I chose to share why I 'checked out' for a few moments to answer said email. I talked with Eli and Maddux about how they know that Ruby has Down syndrome and I asked them what that meant. They said "PT' and Eli added that she may learn things a little slower. I then asked if that was a big deal and they both said no. I tried to explain how it's not, but some adults (like me!) think it's a big deal if they don't know a Ruby...they get scared sometimes and this mom was scared. I asked them what I should tell her to make her not scared..if they had any advice. One of the questions I asked them was "How would you tell one of your friends to play with a baby with Down syndrome?" Eli shrugged up his shoulders and said in disbelief, "Like any other baby!"