The Sibling Bond…Special Needs Siblings
I captured this moment this morning and I felt compelled to share. You see, often we special needs parents fear the impact of having a special needs sibling will have on our other children. We have 5 other children besides Cedar so the fear was gripping in the beginning. Will they resent him, will they feel burdened, will they be embarrassed… and so many other concerns.
A parent worries, it comes with the job description I suppose.
What sage advice can I share about the impact that having a sibling with Down Syndrome has had on my 5 other children?
It has made them better people.
My children all know that Cedar has Down Syndrome and we have explained to all of them exactly what that means. My 18 year old who is studying to be a pediatric RN understands the science behind it, my 15 year old explains it to her friends, my 12 year old wears tshirts and leather bracelets celebrating his brother, my 6 year old tells everyone who will listen and also boldly points out anyone he sees that also has Down Syndrome like his brother (we are working on this one…lol) and my 4 year old can tell you that Cedar is just learning a little slower than some other kids and that he has an extra 21st chromosome.
But, that doesn’t tell you what being a special needs sibling means… It means our family is closer than ever before. It 
means that all of my children rally around Cedar and act as though he belongs to them alone. It means that they seek out individuals with special needs in public, rather than shy away from them. It means they all tell everyone he is their favorite sibling.
All that worry I had was for nothing.
If you are new on this path let me tell you that your children will take all of their cues from you. If you treat your children like there is something wrong then others will too, but if you treat your child with special needs just like the rest, you will be pleasantly surprised at how your other children respond.
We have always strived to teach our children to be kind to others, I think they really get the lesson now.
If you are worried that adding more children when you have a child with special needs will be problematic for the siblings, let me assure you that again, you may just be pleasantly surprised.
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