My son is 7 and has SEN, he goes to a special school. It was a huge fight to get him in there and is now thriving socially, emotionally and academically to the extent he’s now working a year ahead in maths and two years ahead in reading and comprehension.
I’m part of a community of parents with children with SEN, many of whom home educate because the system is just not set up for their children. Many of these are my closest friends but there are certainly some that are more like just acquaintances.
My son was out of school for a while before I was able to get him into his current school so I did a lot of educating him at home. Because this became our norm, we still do a lot of it now. He doesn’t get homework from school so it’s not in addition to that, it’s usually just 30 minutes before bed of some maths and reading comprehension sheets off of twinkl before we do bedtime stories. He doesn’t complain and is currently enjoying it, when it becomes a battle I’ll probably stop because life is too short!
Anyway, I had some good news about his learning that I shared with my friends after school today. One of them then posted in the bigger group chat congratulating my son on his efforts and achievement.
One woman in the chat that I’m not particularly close with then said “Well done, hardly surprising though the amount of work you make him do, big believer here that kids needs to be kids rather than being hothoused but each to their own!”.
I’m fuming. I have only shared what I do with him because other members of the group have asked for advice. I’ve never once bragged about his achievements to this group (I absolutely do to my close friends as we all do and we all celebrate our children’s successes because we love and support each other!). If anything I’m extra cautious not to be braggy or patronising.
My son has had such a difficult journey so far with his education and to be honest with personal life too that I’m so angry to be told that I’m not letting him just be a kid! He does so much socially, has great friends and spends lots of time playing with them and being out in nature, lots of screen time too so I’m definitely not a role model parent by any means. But I’m gutted that his success has been put down to me hothousing him!!!