A resolution calling for the establishment of a national day to recognize the parents of children with special needs is expected to be considered as early as Tuesday in the House of Representatives.
If passed, the resolution would not alter any laws, but would be a ceremonial way for the House to ask the president to issue a proclamation creating an annual day to honor parents of those with special needs.
A recent Department of Health and Human Services survey estimates that 14 percent of American children from birth to age 17 have a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral or emotional condition, according to the resolution, which is sponsored by Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind.
“Parents of special needs children deserve annual national recognition for their selfless dedication, compassion and sacrifice,” the resolution says.
Oh puh-leeze! Will this become something like Christmas: all the various organizations can fete you for one day and forget you the rest of the year? Or is this just a politicians’ photo-op?
Is this seriously what are tax dollars are paying for, the salary of these people to waste their day putting thru a piece of paper that will make a day where i’ll get patted on the back because i have a special needs child. Please people. This is absolutely ridiculous. We don’t need recognition, we need cures, and we need financial support to make their everyday lives easier to cope, to get the help they need from professionals. Support for parents, who loose their jobs and can’t get one because their schedule is limited with therapy visits, and doctor visits.
This will become a photo-op for the politicians – nothing more.
I too have a problem with this day, but for a different reason: why just parents? What about the brothers and sisters who will have six-to-seven decade relationship with the family members who have disabilities? We need to move from thinking about parents to thinking about families.
I’m the parent of an adult child with a disability… or “special needs”… and I think this is a tad much. It makes me feel like society thinks my son is such a hardship to bear that I need to be honored in some way simply because he exists. I’m not a politician, but seriously, isn’t there something else these guys can be focusing on? Like maybe enforcing IDEA or the ADA? Working on the economy? Increasing affordable housing?
I agree wholeheartedly with the previous posts, especially concerning siblings. Please, Congress, just ensure that all kids have access to quality health care and caring families. We don’t need any more “ceremonial ways.”
I think I’ll be the lone voice that says – “yea Congress” — ok, so it is only one day — one day can turn into 30 – which can turn into 365 – plus plus plus. Why complain? At least it is recognition. Yes, we do ALOT for our kids throughout the year. Every second of the day actually. Can someone really put a price and/or a value on what any of us have to give up to take care of our children with disabilities. With the recognition that this day could give us, we have the opportunitiy to open the eyes (hearts and wallets) of others who might not ever consider what a parent, sibling, or relative might go through to take care of a child/parent with a disability. I for one am glad for the recognition. And if it is Christmas for a day, so be it. Don’t kill the good deed – embrace it and look for ways to expand it. The eneergy used in all the earlier messages to bash the idea could be used to see how to create this seed into a bigger tree. That’s just my $0.02. Peace.
I would prefer to be honored by having congress fully fund IDEA. This is a total waste of time–we do not need recognition for having a special needs child–Help us by funding IDEA so that schools will have the money to train teachers who work with our children. Or how about having DOE’s actually enforce the laws in their states–that doesn’t cost anything, but it would show you care about our kids.
I know most people won’t agree with me, but I like this idea. Not because I want a pat on the back for loving, or taking care of my special needs child, but because in this day I hope that it brings awareness to other people who have never experienced it. So, many people out there have no idea the strength it takes to raise a special child, and the blessing that it brings to your life. My son has a condition that I had never even heard of until he was diagnosed with it. Since then I try to enlighten people of it. Maybe this one day will bring more days. Days that will in time make people open their minds to these types of conditions. Make people stop treating special needs children as if they are different in a bad way. Stop looking at them as if they are victims. The only thing I ever wanted for my child was to be treated like everyone else.
How about a Human Being Day? Seriously!
Like others, I would like some financial support, rather than a day that recognizes what I do for my 2 children with disabilitites. I would like a job, any job, that is flexible enough to accommodate the medical appointments, school schedules, chronic illnesses, etc. that I have to deal with. Living on the edge of poverty and getting no benefits because we ‘have too much income” is ridiculious. Pleeeeeze … my husband is retired and I am unemployed because my flexible part-time job was eliminated and will never be reinstated. We also can’t find any providers that will take adult-aged children with special needs. Respite? How is 3 hours a week, if we can get it? How is that going to help? Maybe these politicians should live in my house for a day and maybe then they an come up with some real ways to help us, instead of a day of recognition.