This Is My Child - the new MNHQ campaign. Everyone come look please!

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello,

As lots of you will already know, we've spent the last few months working on a new campaign called 'This Is My Child' - and it's launching on Monday. (We're letting you know about it now because there's a rather nice piece about in in the Guardian this weekend.)

You can read about the background to the campaign here, but in essence it's about myth-busting and awareness-raising - so we'd really love you all to share it as widely as possible. We've consulted with Mumsnetters and the material is supported by input from some of the leading charities in the field: Mencap, Contact A Family and Every Disabled Child Matters.

Over the years on Mumsnet, parents of children with SN have described how their lives are made more difficult by the occasional (or not-so-occasional) judginess of members of the public. They've described how this can contribute to their isolation, placing limits on their social opportunities because they can't face the stress and disapproval that comes with public interactions.

That's why we came up with This Is My Child. Its aim is to support parents of children with additional needs, inform everyone else, and open up a conversation about how we can all act together to make day-to-day life a bit easier for these families.

The input of parents caring for children with special needs has always provided a fascinating perspective for other MNers, encouraging empathy and giving real insight into what life can be like. We're hoping that our myth-busters, tips for non-experts and strategies for parents and carers, along with our background facts and figures, will help to bring the wisdom and perspective of Mumsnet SN posters to a wider audience.

So if you like what you read and think someone you know would find it interesting or useful, please share it as widely as you can (you'll find our impressively large sharing buttons on each page ).

And for the Tweeps among you, we'll be holding a Twitter party on the #ThisIsMyChild hashtag on Tuesday between 1pm and 2pm; please join in if you can.

As ever, we'd love to know your thoughts and hear your feedback, so please use this thread to post up anything that occurs to you.

Thanks
MNHQ

[magimedi]

Really lovely - I will share it with al lI can.

[Vasilisa96]

It's a wonderful feeling to see this campaign take off!! Extremely powerful and a shot-in-the-arm for all Parent Carers of children and young people with SEND. Look for NNPCF online; it's active in every town and city. Join yours, it is a brilliant initiative to support parent Carers of children with special needs and disabilities. Thank you, Mumsnet!

[Vasilisa96]

//www.nnpcf.org.uk
//www.councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk

[sparklingstars]

This is excellent. May I suggest adding asthma to your list of conditions that this is covering as it has a massive impact on the education and social lives of many children and also impacts on parenting in many ways, most of which are not obvious to the 'person in the street' as they just see it as needing an inhaler occasionally rather than a life long dependency on medications and impacting on many things in their life, their siblings and parents.

[EllenJanesthickerknickers]

Thank you MN.

[Velve]

Wonderful campaign.
Great article in the Guardian.

[CabbageLooking]

Lovely campaign but for some reason I can't flick through the photos - is it just me?

[charitygirl]

Great - well done MNHQ, and all the parents, and children, who've contributed.

[Lastofthepodpeople]

I think it's very easy for someone to see something as 'bad behaviour' when they don't know any better.

This is a great campaign. I've certainly had my eyes opened by posters on Mumsnet.

[Snatchoo]

This is great and I have shared.

My boys have speech delay, and I sometimes get looks and questions like it's something I've done to make them not talk. I can't imagine what it must be like for children and parents where they have more severe difficulties and disabilities.

[onetiredmummy]

Shared on Facebook , although the accompanying picture is of women dancing or exercising ? Strange choice, is there a reason behind it?

[badgerhead]

This is a brilliant campaign, as a childminder who looks after a boy with Aspergers Syndrome and others in the past with hidden conditions, I am positive about the need to make people's awareness of how judgemental they can be, as it is so important.

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

Thanks so much for the comments and suggestions - we will have a good look through.

And thanks also to everyone who's been helping to spread the word.

onetiredmummy - hmm, not sure about that. Did you share by hitting the 'share' button on this thread, or on a particular page? Can you tell us how you did it and then we'll try to work out what's going on with the image.

CabbageLooking - do you mean on this page? It's working for me. Are you on desktop or mobile? Anyone else having problems?

[SPBisResisting]

Wonderful. Will be sharing

[loseweighthl]

Like, Shared & Tweeted - fantastic article :-)x

[LynetteScavo]

I think this is one of the best things MNHQ has ever done.

And looking at the gallery, I must say, MNetters seem to produce extremely gorgeous children!

But it's the captions that go with the photo's that struck me Simple sentences which somehow show so clearly the love, respect and awe each parent has for their child. Beautiful and moving.

[onetiredmummy]

Hi mnhq, I used the share to Facebook button at the bottom of this thread

[hazeyjane]

Great to see the campaign up and running, and a really good article too.

Dh saw it on the BBC website, clicked on the photos and ran into the kitchen saying,

'Hazey, there is a really blurry photo of ds being used in the MNSN campaign!!'

I hadn't noticed, because our iPad screen is so schmeary.

[RowanMumsnet]

@onetiredmummy

Hi mnhq, I used the share to Facebook button at the bottom of this thread

Hmm you're right - it's a default image I think!

Will see if we can get it changed to one of our lovely pics.

[SallyBear]

Hazey

[hazeyjane]

Don't worry, I have been busy with the baby wipes.

Great article too, although some of the comments afterwards are just exasperating, but really go to show why a campaign like this is so important.

[TheNinjaGooseIsOnAMission]

fab campaign, have already shared

[SallyBear]

Yes there was a comment that exasperated me quite a bit, as obviously the writer was clueless of how frustrating and just downright disrespectful it is to ask "what's wrong with her/him".

[RowanMumsnet]

@rightsaidthread

So happy to see this up and running. Can we still add photos?

Do send 'em in to [email protected], FAO Campaigns Team, and we'll try to get them in.