Terri Mauro

On the Parenting Roundabout Podcast Round 2, we just finished watching season 1 of As We See It on Amazon Prime. It’s a series about three mid-twenties roommates on the autism spectrum (Jack, Violet, and Harrison), their aide (Mandy), and their…

I’m resolving to be calmer this year, to not look for problems, to count blessings and be grateful, and ... yeah, that’s realistic. Think I could probably give up coffee easier than I could give up worrying. In a Parenting Roundabout episode…

While the Parenting Roundabout Podcast is not about parenting special needs specifically, that's the only viewpoint I have on parenting, so the topic comes up. Here are some recent discussions to which I brought a special needs parenting angle. Perks…

Every day or so this week, I'll be sharing a few encouraging words for parents of kids with special needs on SoundCloud and Riffr. I'll collect them here in this post for easier listening, and you can also find them on the bottom of my homepage at…

A new season of Dancing with the Stars starts tonight, and as has become the norm for this particular reality show, the cast includes a contestant with a disability. Paralympian Danelle Umstead, a visually impaired Alpine skier, will follow in the…

I've been writing now and then about problems my kids have had getting jobs, and right at the moment, we're in a good place. They're still only working part-time, but they're working, and I'm grateful to their employers for apparently, at least at…

Ah, back-to-school. For some parents, it's just a matter of filling out a pile of forms and fighting for the last folder at Staples. For parents of kids with special needs, there's the additional task of gathering together handouts and books to pass…

Anger at the rejecting party. Anger at yourself for having put your child in a position to be rejected. Anger at every naysaying professional who ever put limits on your kid for forcing you to be constantly challenging that child to prove them wrong…

Chidi on The Good Place just kind of speaks for all of us, doesn't he? I sure know that endless parade of worries and concerns turning into fears. It marches through present events, whether things are going well or not, and drags me back to past…

"I want you to do what you want. I just want you to talk to me about it. I want us to talk about what it will mean and how we’ll make it work. I want us to talk like we’re going to figure it out together. I want us to talk … because I like the sound…

“Thank you for your interest in employing my young-adult children.” Wait. You have no interest, do you? Let me start again. “Thank you for pretending to be interested in employing my young adults so that at least for a brief period of time, we had…

I see in the news that Toys R Us will soon be no more. My kids are past the age now where toys are a major purchase item for us, and I'm certainly happy buying online for any incidental plaything purchases I need to make. But the thought of Toys R Us…

You have to understand that nothing good comes after the words “You have to understand,” only a slap of somebody’s idea of reality that you are woefully ignorant of and must be made to comprehend. You have to understand that your child is limited and…

First day. First week. First day off. First hundred days. The school year is full of firsts. Of course, if you’re the parent of a student with special needs, chances are you’re going to chalk up some additional firsts on top of those. Check these off…

It may be tempting not to think much about back-to-school advocacy until school is almost back. We all need our summer breaks. But if you wait until the first day of school to get yourself ready for a new school year, you may find that the school has…

Worrying about the upcoming school year? Wondering how a new teacher will react to your child? It’s natural to want to send in a pile of stickie-noted books and a thick treatise on Everything There Is to Know about your child and your child’s…

“Stop worrying!” These are words I hear from my kids with annoying regularity. Considering that they’re the ones I’m worrying myself sick about, it seems uncharitable. If I don’t worry about them, who’s going to? And it’s not like this worrying thing…

Maybe the summer snuck up on you. Maybe you’re exhausted from IEP battle or endless nights of hard homework or debilitating worrying about every. single. thing. Whatever the reason, you’re facing the great open canvas of summer vacation with dread, a…

On the Internet. At the mall. In the grocery store. At school. Everywhere, it seems, are experts in parenting not just their own children, not just children in general, but your specific child — and whatever they believe is right, honey, you’re not…

“You deserve a medal.” If you’re the mother of a child with special needs, you’ve probably heard that a time or two, and you may have felt it, too. And yet, nobody ever comes through with the metal, do they? It’s true that we get many, many rewards…