Did you miss something Mr Timpson?

You may remember that earlier this year I was part of a delegation of Special Needs Bloggers who met with Edward Timpson, MP - Parliamentary-Under Secretary for Children and Families.  We had an opportunity to share with him our personal experiences of life parenting a child with disabilities.  He was very engaged and appreciated the time we spent helping him understand the realities of life when you are involved in a more extreme form of parenting.  In fact after the meeting I received a lovely note from him which even mentioned some of the points I had made and thanked me for my time as he wanted to ensure that he full understood the challenges parents like myself face.

What I told the Minister (& what I would have told him if I had more time!)

So what do you get when you put 11 very opinionated, passionate, at the end of their tether Mothers of children with Special Needs Children in a room with the Minister for children?  A meeting that almost became a group therapy session that could have run all day if the very harassed clock watching aides would have allowed it.

I'm third from the left in the black dress

I met with Edward Timpson, MP - officially known as the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State (Children & Families) earlier this week as part of a delegation of Bloggers with an interest in SEN invited by the Tots100 bloggers forum.  We were specifically invited to discuss our experiences of the Special Education Needs system - each of us bore our individual battle scars from our dealings with the system and over and over the same themes came up, and in a way it was good to know that I was not alone in my battle to ensure that ALL my children achieved their potential, regardless of their ability or disability, age or gender.

Life in the SEN Pinball Machine

Just blowing the dust and cobwebs off the blog before I begin..... not only has my trusty laptop failed me and just like in the early months of this blog I am reduced to borrowing my son's computer, I am also just about emerging battered and bruised from what can only be described a rocky start to 2013.

Life is never going to be easy parenting four children, especially when two of them require additional attention but when you are also battling the system to get your children the support and help you need then reserves run dry very quickly.