Before I start, it has to be said that I haven’t heard many crass comments in my time as a parent to a child, who happens to have DS, but just occasionally I cross paths with someone annoying, like today:-
I am walking both my daughters and my friends little girl (who also happens to have DS) to the toilet of a fish and chip cafe. Annoying man sitting at table nearest the toilet door says rather too loudly to his wife ‘Ahh, Down’s kids, they are so cute!’
I wanted to turn to him and say “Like what? Puppy dogs? Kittens perhaps? Who is this ‘they’? I’m sure in his mind he wasn’t saying anything horrible but all I heard was him categorising the children as ‘a Downs’, as if they were a different species! Children with DS are no more or no less cute than any other child – ‘they’ are not some sort of cuddly, loveable doll, they are just kids! Sometimes cute, sometimes cunning, sometimes a pain in the do-da! C’mon people – get with the programme!!