About This Is My Child campaign

Background to the campaign

Way back in 2003, one of our most prolific posters in Special needs wrote a post outlining how her life with her autistic son was made much more difficult by the judginess of other parents, and over the years we've seen this emerge as a running theme.

Early in 2013 - a full 10 years after JimJams wrote that post - we saw another example on the boards of how children with neurodevelopmental and behavioural disabilities are often misunderstood, and how their parents can end up being isolated, limiting their social opportunities because they can't face the stress and disapproval that comes with public interactions.

The input of parents caring for children with special needs has always provided a fascinating perspective for other posters on Mumsnet, encouraging empathy and giving real insight into what life can be like for these families.

Aims of the campaign

Our aim is to support parents of children with additional needs, inform everyone else, and open up a conversation about how we can all act together to make day-to-day life a bit easier for everyone caring for children with additional needs.

We can't all be experts in the many aspects of disability, but we can all make an effort to hold back on the instant judgement, hit the empathy button and consciously try to act in a respectful and constructive way.

We hope the material we've put together will help.

As ever, do please feed in your views on our Talk thread, and share the information as widely as you can - via Twitter (#ThisIsMyChild, @MumsnetTowers), Facebook and everywhere else.

Last updated: over 1 year ago