By Natalie Umphery.

As a mother of ten kids, including three sets of twins, you would think I would have had parenting covered. At the age of three, within my oldest set of multiples, my son was diagnosed with mild/moderate autism with the ability to speak and communicate, along with ADHD. With all that being said, I wish that someone would have told me the following ten things about parenting a child with special needs.

  1. A lot of people just didn’t understand why my child was different and would blame it on my parenting skills or lack thereof.
  2. I would have quite a few mommy melt-downs. I’m not ashamed to admit that difficult outings to places like the library can be devastating experiences.
  3. I would constantly be making sure that my son got the proper education and fair treatment that he needed, and constantly fighting to keep him in a regular classroom. If your child needs special attention, then he should get it. My son is very bright and doesn’t need to be in special education classes. More