Being the "perfect child" is no easy task, but it shouldn't be a task at all!  It's so easy for special needs siblings to end up in the category of "a good child" to compensate for our sibling or just to take the burden off of our parents.  But we are so much more than that.  We have our own identity and that is enough.  Take a listen to this conversation with Emma and hear her story on episode 16.

In this episode we talk about:

About Emma’s family and brother with Autism and intellectual disabilities
How Emma’s brother communicates and how they spend time together
Growth vs limitations of our siblings
Feeling like a 3rd parent subconsciously 
Going to therapy and learning more about ourselves as individuals and how being a sibling colors that
The internal pressure/obligation as a sibling and “being a good sister”
Being with our siblings by ourselves vs our parents, care giving staff, logistics, etc
Taking the time now to make the most of our “free-er” time 
The sibling to sibling and parent to child relationships are separate and important
Plug for The Sibling Leadership Network 
We’re not the biggest fans of family gatherings
Emma exercising her boundaries while still caring when it comes to her brother
Suppressing our feelings while growing up
Needing to feel like we need to help when it really wasn’t necessary
Going to therapy!  And normalizing feelings
Resources for the next generation of younger siblings
Emma’s encouragement to fellow siblings


Links:

Sibling Leadership Network (SLN) https://siblingleadership.org/
Find out if there’s a state chapter where you live https://siblingleadership.org/about-the-sibling-leadership-network/state-chapters/


More Info:

Check out the blog and contact Charlene here: https://thespecialneedssiblingpodcast.com/
Get episode updates directly to your inbox: https://www.thespecialneedssiblingpodcast.com/newsletter
Support the podcast on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thespecialneedssiblingpodcast


Music by:

AlexGrohl from Pixabay
QubeSounds from Pixabay

Ver todos los episodios