No apologizing allowed

My boys are playing baseball this year and having a great time! They are not the best players on the team, but everyone has been incredibly supportive of them and I am so thankful for that. Watching them play, being regular little boys, and interacting with their teammates, has really gotten me thinking about this blog and what I would say to other parents with children struggling to be "normal", and this is it:

Do not hide from the world. Even if the world doesn't understand, who cares? When my boys do something a little odd and an adult looks at me with a questioning gaze, I just smile. I never, ever apologize for my boys. This is not to say that they should not learn to live in the world, but I believe the world should also try to meet them halfway.

My boys are incredibly special. They learned to read at almost the same time they learned to talk. They excel at school and can grasp concepts that are difficult for many much older than them. They are very sensitive to others' emotions and at times seem almost empathic. They were self-reliant in many ways well before their peers. However, they were and are well behind their peers in many other ways and it is this gap between the excellence and the delay that is the telltale sign.

Someone told me long ago to think of my children as being two years younger than they are and this has really helped me. When we are in a social situation where the other children are acting a certain way, but my boys are acting differently, I just think about how a 5-year-old would act rather than a 7-year-old and realize that they are fine and not to worry about them so much.

Every day I look at my boys and am in awe of how far we have come and I know that the day will come when they will be completely self-reliant and independent. But for now, I am cherishing every moment with my beautiful, perfect children and loving them just the way they are.