While I was at the DYF Fall Education Retreat this past weekend, I observed the family interactions throughout the days and during various activities. I was really kind of pleased with what I saw!
The families were relatively young families, with kids ages 3-13 for the most part. This means that for the most part, kids were still on speaking terms with their parents… the Teen Years hadn’t fully hit yet! (There was a simultaneous teens-only program running in the same place, but I wasn’t involved in that one.)
What struck me the most was how many conversations parents were having with their type one kids. As an adult I don’t really have many conversations at all about the numerous diabetes-related decisions I make in my day. If I did have them, I would have a LOT of them, and the person I had them with would have to be just as knowledgeable about the disease as I am. What a tall order!
As an important aside: I can see, too, how these conversations throughout every day (starting with: what did you eat, what was your number, do you want to check, how much insulin did you take, how much do you want to take, are you going to play kickball, and on and on) with one kid can affect the other kids in the family who do not themselves have diabetes. I remember being very young and jealous that my sister got to go to art class and piano lessons and go out and do activities and come back and report on them around the dinner table; I wonder how the jealousy manifests itself around a dinner table affected by type one diabetes.
I’m never one to say it is easy to live with type one diabetes. I’m never one to say it is easy to be a parent of a type one kid. But I hope I’m often one to applaud (quite loudly but never loudly enough) those who are making the best of either situation.
So, no matter what, keep talking. Keep talking as long as you can. Even when they stop responding, and even when you wish they hadn’t responded in a way they just did (I heard “who is this thing and what did they do with my adorable child” a couple times this weekend in pre-teen talks), keep it up. Keep it up if only so they know later that you are there if and when they need someone to be there.
Yes, it takes a lot of thought to be a type one kid. It takes a lot to be a type one adult. It takes a lot to be a parent, and a parent of a type one kid.
And yes, it’s all worth it.
