It's Okay to Be Different

I was married right out of high school and bore two sons within the first two years. Needing extra income but wanting to stay home with my sons, I decided to do in home child care. I did child care for the next forty–two years. I had many children enrolled in my child care facility all with different wants and needs. One of the children I had was partly deaf. During our reading hour, I had to spend a little extra time with this child. Some of the other children did not understand this. I would then explain that she was a little different than them because of her hearing disability, but it was okay to be different. At one point, we would discuss all the ways that children could be different from each other. We discussed each child separately and what they liked and what they did not like. We discussed their favorite foods, their favorite playtime, and even what they wanted to be when they grew up. By doing this, it showed them that they were all different, whether it was a handicap or just being a normal difference. When I decided to write short stories, this was the first one I wanted to write about based on my experience with the children.

-- Carol Holmgren