Nice to meet you...

Having a special needs child makes even the most mundane conversations a little bit more complicated.
I go out and about with Andi Jane and Oliver a lot. We really don’t do well stuck at home all day long. So while we are out and about I run into other moms and I am a talker. I tend to chat it up with a new mom every time I step out of the house. I enjoy meeting other people and feel like I am making up for all those years of being a bit nerdy and stuck in a friend rut with the same friends forever (whom all I still love J).
But it is never uncomplicated. I will start talking about their kids and they’ll ask about mine. They ask if they are my only two and then things get complicated. I can either be very evasive which I tend to do, but for some reasons the questions never stop at just how old is your oldest. Then they have to ask how helpful she is with her younger siblings. Or about how I like 2nd grade homework. Or my child goes to that school, who’s your daughter’s teacher? I don’t like to play poor me and tell strangers all about Lily. Honestly I kind of like it when the conversation stops at telling them her age and name. In their mind I have a 2nd grader named Lily whom they assume plays sports and brings home homework. I shouldn’t even have to explain that I am not ashamed of Lily. Not one bit. But sometimes pretending to be “normal” is so much easier. Whenever I have to say, well she’s in special ed. She’s special needs. She’s in a wheelchair. Then the conversation makes a u turn. I get pity sometimes. Sometimes I get unnecessary kudos. The mom starts to feel like we are on different playing fields and we aren’t. The mom isn’t doing anything wrong, it is just a reaction that happens and it changes me in their eyes.
I appear to become super mom and I am so far from it.
Mothering Lily is so easy. I love her so I do what I need to do. Any other mom would do the same. Hell a lot of them would do it a whole lot better than me.
Sometimes I wonder what kind of mom would I have been if Lily were a sport playing, home work doing 2nd grader, but really I don’t think I would be that different. Maybe I am kidding myself. Maybe I am not. It’s something I will never know. I know Lily made me grow up quickly and that is something that may have not had happened, but I think my genuine character is still here, always has been. I think I have become an updated version of me. Like a Kim 5.0.
This new version likes making new friends and meeting new people. So I guess even if it does cause conversations to get more complicated than I’d like when talking to strangers, I just have to deal. Besides maybe I just need to take that kudos and say thanks.
I mean, why not.