My kids started school on Friday. It’s dumb to start school on a Friday but it’s 2020 so I didn’t waste a lot of time thinking about it. Their first virtual day went really well. I was panicked last week (you may recall my complaining post about school starting) but it went really well. The district said they had worked really hard to make it so it would be like you’re kids are at school but most importantly you wouldn’t need to be right next to them like the end of last year, March to May.
I think there won’t be any issue with my daughter getting her stuff done. With my son, we might need to check on him a bit more throughout the day but he is asking for more independence, his teachers are asking parents to give the kids more freedom and so we decided we will also try to give him more time and space to be self reliant, to find solutions on his own before we race in to help him out or redirect him.
With the start of school comes the ginormous school packets of emergency cards and school agreements you have to fill out and sign. They have to be refilled out every new school year. As I was scribbling the forms out, I was reminded again of how ugly my handwriting has gotten. In high school, I used to have bubbly, flowing handwriting. My first job our of high school was at a bakery and I had to write obnoxiously, curvy letters in buttercream on cakes so my handwriting took on the same loops.
Two years ago, I lost feeling in my body from my collarbone to my toes. My hands basically quit working. I did 7 months of OT learning new ways to do things. The feeling has since returned but my hand strength had deteriorated and never came back to it’s pre-MS levels. I notice it more and more in the mundane activities of life. Taking a lid off a bottle. Filling out stacks of forms for two kids. Trying to flip the lid open on my shampoo. Fine motor skills if you will.
I get bored filling out the same info over and over so anytime a form asks my occupation, I put “Domestic Goddess” because its just a better title than Disabled. I always wonder if it gets caught by any data entry person as they just retype whatever I’ve written on their stupid form.
MSfit Momma 