Special needs is a scary term. As a parent, when a teacher calls you and tells you that your child might have an 'issue', man ...
the feelings that you start feeling are unexplainable, but they all boil down to one question: How did I cause this!?

I can't absolve you of blame (just in case you thought I was here to do that). What I can say, however, is that you need to stop and listen. Why am I giving you this advice? I am giving you this advice because your first instinct will be to reject this box that they are trying to place your child in.

Listen, for the sake of your child. Then act, for the sake of your child.

Storytime: I felt the feelings, I rejected adamantly, then eventually listened, when my child was in grade 1 (I just have to insert that a beautiful, caring and understanding soul delivered the news). Today my child is sitting the upcoming CAPE unit 1 exams. I listened. I got him help, starting in grade three, right up to high school.

What is the message here? Get out of your feelings. Get your child the help he/ she needs, then watch them flourish under the care that comes as a result of that. Our Ministry of Education has severe cracks, but don't listen to the rhetoric, it is not entirely broken. Your child can be accommodated for PEPP, CXC and CAPE. Research tells me that proper accommodations exist at the tertiary level as well. Give your child a chance by taking that first step, listen.

We are very used to the concept of adults having power over children, which automatically places the adult in the position of the abuser. But, let's consider the alternative ...

Children can have power over their parents. This power comes from the child's unerring ability to embarrass their parents. Consider this scenario. You are in public with your children and one child begins to act out. Let's call this kid child #1, and said bundle of joy that you carried for nine long, long months decides that they simply MUST sit beside their sibling and push and push until child #2 falls off the chair. Like a good parent, you attempt to separate the children, but child #1 decides to ask, over and over again, and very loudly to boot, the horrifying question that plagues parents' nightmares: "What did I do??!!" 

The result? Every eye turns on you, some do so surreptitiously, some do so openly. Next comes subtle judgement from all and sundry, which you imagine sounds like this: 'If a did my pickney dat ...", "Eeeh eeeh" "She needs to control that kid". You ponder if you should utilize the power play of giving child #1 a firm clout on the head side, but you remember your mother's statement, many moons ago, to a mother in your current situation: "Nobada kill him mommy, wait till yuh reach home cause weh gone bad a mawning can't fix a evening.". So you do the only thing that any self respecting parent in this humbling predicament would do, exit the store with your bundles that the Lord blessed you with, and without the item that you visited the store to get.

Is the purpose of this story to prove that children can abuse their parents? No it is not. The purpose of this story is to propose that you, dear public, could suspend your judgment of parents who are mere mortals. Parents who are, on some days, just trying to survive their little humans. 

Keep your chin up, fellow parents.

I introduced Godzilla to my boys, 11 and 17, this week, the 1998 version. Their responses were interesting. But first, a quick summary of the plot.

Godzilla goes on a rampage across the seas, leaving utter carnage, as well as shocked and traumatized people in his path, not to mention the high body count. The military tries to keep a step ahead but is woefully behind in their discovery of exactly what is causing this chaos. Enter the 'worm guy' who measures the effect of radiation  on worms. He is able to shed valuable light on the monster, after we finally get to see him, based on his previous studies of radiated worms. Every Samson has his Delilah, so 'worm guy' gets his ex college sweetheart, now reporter. She steals valuable footage that makes it to the news and he is fired. 'Worm guy' then ends up in the clutches of the French intelligence who work with him to find Godzilla's nest, which is in Madison Square Garden. To cut a long story short, 'reporter girl' ends up at Madison Square Garden with 'worm guy' and they film live evidence of the existence of thousands of baby Godzillas. The army ends up blowing up the famous landmark, with our heroes making a narrow escape, and one runt remaining to become 'the famous Godzilla that we now know", according to my 11 year old.

17 year old: I liked it because despite it being a movie about a monster destroying a city, it still managed to have a complex, interesting and character driven plot that has twists and turns. They managed to make the scenes for the military fights interesting and the French spies are an interesting wildcard. The special and practical effects hold up quiet well, despite the age of the movie and while the sequel bait was a bit predictable, it was an overall great movie.

11 year old: The movie was really, really good. I thought it would start with the blue Godzilla, but it started with it's mommy, which was very, very different. It had a cool pre-historic dinosaur look. The monster also had some emotions, unlike other monsters that are just cold. My favourite part of the movie was when Godzilla was trapped on the bridge. My second favourite part was when the camera man was looking for his tape, then realized that the French guy took it.

Leisa: I absolutely LOVED this movie! I enjoyed it when it first came out and I triple enjoyed sharing it with my boys. I totally appreciated the fact that there were zero curse words (wow, this is possible!) in this movie. Can we get back to those days? The special effects were still great and I so enjoyed seeing the looks on the children's faces when Godzilla was revealed. I thoroughly appreciated the build up with the little peaks of his body, before the big reveal.

Scores:
17 year old - 4/5
11 year old - 5/5
Leisa - 5/5