Worried that this may come across as performance parenting

[notgivingin789]

Hey all !

DS has very severe speech and language/ social communication difficulties.

When DS was younger, I went on a Makaton course and taught DS to sign... with his speech therapist at the time, hugely recommended as it will aide his speech development and to do it as often as possible. Once upon a time, whilst DS was on the bus, I was signing to him as I spoke...however I heard a woman saying to someone (I assume a friend) saying "Gosh... I hate parents like her, always needing to show off...".

Since then, I've been really cautious of doing certain things with DS incase it seems like I am performance parenting. Currently DS speech therapist recommended that DS needed a high tec system (communication aide when you press buttons and it talks)... from parents and professionals who know about high tec AAC...it's recommended that you use the device as often as possible, outside...all the time basically to generalise the skills.

However, I feel anxious when I use DS device in public... I definitely do not want to come across as like I'm performance parent... but I have to do use it to help him.

What are your takes on this ?

fucking women.

you are meeting the needs of his disability. keep meeting the needs of his disability.

would rather be signing than wrestling a not so small boy in melt down who is being abusive, rude and violent

Do not waste any more of your time worrying about what others think of you, OP. In this situation, I would suggest a stern brow, bosom hoiking and a menacing march towards cunts that take any sort of 'tude towards how you deal with your DC.

I totally agree with you peachgreen it's a bloody ridiculous thing to get worked up about.

Faith how do you know she was looking around to see if she had a captive audience? How do you know she wasn't looking around self consciously to see if someone was about to tell her to shut up?

faith, so you're having a go at a woman for talking to her child on the bus?

And I don't know, looking around her?

Really? Don't you have better things to post about than that? Because that's a non event in my eyes.

Performance parenting isn't shameful. Two buzzwords in the same sentence that mean shite-all.

Perhaps so-called performance parenting is just a result of everyone feeling silently (or publicly) judged about their parenting all the fucking time.

I think take a good look at why you feel anxious. Is it because you think someone will say something that your ds will hear, or you just dont want to feel judged? Both are understandable. I think if I heard anyone whispering like that about me Id look directly at them amd say my ds has a speech and language delay, I am doing as his therapist has recommended. Itd be good for you ds to see you standing up for him if he has heard, and for him to know he doesnt need to be embaressed about others knowing.

What youre doing isnt performance parenting so you can go out feeling confident that anyone who comments is a bag of sh*te!! Frankly even if I see a PP I wouldnt say anything to them cos that would make me rude and worse than the pp!