So, The New York Times' blog, The Motherlode, ran a post about the wacky response I got on my piece for Redbook magazine. It happened Friday, while I was at the Blogalicious conference in Miami to run a workshop on great blog writing/ticking people off (OK, it was just about blog writing).
The gist of the Motherlode post: People can say some pretty insulting things online. Dave, who rarely pays attention to stuff happening in the blogosphere (ONE of us has to not be addicted to it) e-mailed me in the morning: "Honey, you're in the New York Times!" His boss had let him know. Excitement!
But as the weekend passed, I was a little bit astounded: Commenters were being insulting all over again. One mom accused me of writing the article to get compliments on my parenting; other posters seemed to be completely and utterly oblivious to the fact that my entire reason for doing Halloween in a different way was because of Max's special powers.
I don't expect every single person to agree with what I write, nor do I expect special treatment by commenters because of Max's cerebral palsy. I do expect some understanding that I approach life in out-of-the-ordinary ways to accommodate his needs. I couldn't help myself; I wrote a comment saying that it was irksome when commenters with "pumpkin puree for brains" didn't get it. Oops.
I'm lucky, I know, that this blog is basically a nice place to live, as are most of the blogs about raising kids with special needs. Negative, insulting comments bug the crap out of me.
Meanwhile, I need to get my butt going on that car wash costume I'm making for Max. What are your kids going to be for Halloween? And trust me, if you say they're not going to wear a costume when they go trick or treating, I WILL NOT CARE!!!
Photo/minipixel
