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Turning 18 – My Latest for CBC Parents

Both of my kids now are technically an age where the world considers them adults. This year, my youngest was just turning 18, when my nephew asked me if both of the kids were adults yet and that gave me pause. I mean first of all what is an adult? At what magical age or stage are we all adults?

Happy Birthday!

Second of all, I think most of you know that my kids are not neurotypical. They are neurodiverse kids aging during a pandemic and frankly that just hits different. So I wrote a little something about what is turning 18 anymore and what does it mean. This is the intro to the piece. click through to the CBC Parents site to read more.

The other day, my nephew asked me if my teenager is an adult now — that gave me pause for half a moment.

Are my kids both adults now? At 18 and 20 are they, in fact, now adults? If so, why am I not breathing easy, sitting back with my feet up thinking the hardest parenting days are behind us?

When my kids were tiny and the days felt onerous and fraught with danger, I’d think to myself in terms of milestones. In fact, 18 was the biggest of these milestones and I would fall asleep thinking If only we can safely get them to the age of 18 then we will breathe a sigh of relief.

And here we are at 18 and I am not resting easy.

Here’s Why 18 is not the Milestone I Thought….Read More.

Birthdays and milestones aren’t the same for everyone. Turning 18 is not exactly how I pictured it and frankly it’s a bit alarming. But during a pandemic, I think we have all earned the right to adjust the sails a bit so that’s what we are doing.

You might also want to read this disability post on CBC Parents about raising a child with FASD and what that looks like for our family.

Mom of two beautiful active girls, traveller, fitness junkie, social media consultant, and keeper of the sanity.

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