This post contains some of the best lonely special needs mom quotes.
Lonely Special Needs Mom Quotes
1. “Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation. It means understanding that something is what it is and there’s going to be a way through it.” – Michael J. Fox
2. “Another mother recalls how she felt caring for twin baby boys, one with cerebral palsy and the other with autism. Caring for two babies with special needs was exhausting and led to a (false) sense of isolation. She felt abandoned by her spouse. “Looking back,” she says, “I know my husband was in the trenches with me changing diapers, tired and worn out. But at the time, I didn’t see it.”” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
3. “Caregiving can be isolating. Tending to a loved one requires significant amounts of time at home. Transporting a child with special needs from one place to another is complicated and requires extra equipment and planning.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
4. “Caring for a child with special needs can be isolating in other ways, too. When one couple learned the little girl they had adopted had autism, the new mom left the workplace to care for her full time. Suddenly, her husband was her only lifeline to the world.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
5. “Children with special needs aren’t sent to special parents, they make parents special.” – Unknown
Related: Am I Lonely Quiz (+ Top 5 Tips To Overcome Loneliness)
6. “Children with special needs require frequent assurance of their parents’ unconditional love to keep their tanks full. Depending on a child’s condition, life experience, and developmental stage, parents may need to express unconditional love in creative and sometimes unconventional ways.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
7. “Even without the guilt, grief is often a daily companion of parents raising kids with special needs. The parents of four children, two of whom have significant special needs, are well-acquainted with grief. They say they grieve after each failed milestone and additional diagnosis.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
8. “In addition to costs related to a child’s immediate special needs, parents have to think about their children’s future expenses.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
9. “Look into the eyes of parents who are immersed in special needs caregiving, and you’ll see that their love tanks are nearly empty. Ask them how raising their children strains the glue holding their marriage together, and they’ll rattle o a list of circumstances that threaten to break the bond between them.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
Related: How To Validate Someone’s Feelings Without Agreeing? (+Examples of Validating Statements)
10. “Many parents of children with special needs are consumed by one of two opposite worries about the future. Some worry that their children will die far too young. Others worry that their children who can’t care for themselves will outlive them.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
11. “My kid takes longer to ‘grow up.’ Secretly, that is sort of awesome.” –Rebecca Smith Masterson
12. “Once you accept that your child will be different, not better or worse…just different, that’s the first step.” – Unknown
13. “Other parents of kids with special needs talk about lack of support in a variety of areas: insurance coverage, government funding for therapies, education, respite, and not feeling welcome at their place of worship.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
14. “Our story is not unique among parents of kids with special needs. The demands of caring for children who have medical conditions, developmental or cognitive delays, disabilities, behavior issues, are on the autism spectrum, or have other special needs can stress marriages to their breaking point.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
Related: Top 21 Emotional Support Quotes
15. “Parenthood is about raising and celebrating the child you have, not the child you thought you’d have. It’s about understanding your child is exactly the person they are supposed to be. And, if you’re lucky, they might be the teacher who turns you into the person you’re supposed to be.” – The Water Giver
16. “Parents of children with special needs love their kids and want to do everything they can to encourage their healing, reduce their pain, and improve their quality of life. When parents fail this calling, despite their best efforts, they often struggle with feelings of guilt and grief.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
17. “Raising a child with special needs changed the dynamics of our family, touching all of us in significant ways. The experience defined the way we parented our son. It strained and changed our marriage.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
18. “Sometimes the things we can’t change end up changing us.” – Unknown
19. “Special needs parents are the equivalent of Batman, Captain America, and the Incredible Hulk combined with a side of Mary Poppins.” – Unknown
20. “The relentless demands of caring for a child with special needs can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion. So when, for some miraculous reason, parents are able to carve out time for one another, they’re often too tired to make an effort to connect. Or like us, they get a babysitter, go to a movie, and one of them falls asleep during the opening credits. When, year after year, couples are too exhausted to invest in one another’s emotional needs, the glue that holds them together weakens, and they break apart.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
21. “Too often, one spouse travels long distances to pursue medical treatment for their child with special needs while the other parent stays behind to work and care for the rest of the family. Some of these parents are separated for months on end.” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
22. “Until you have a kid with special needs you have no idea of the depth of your strength, tenacity, and resourcefulness.” – Unknown
23. “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” – Angela Schwindt
24. “With so many special needs caregiving stresses, how can couples possibly stay strong, connected, and able to ll each other’s love tanks?” – Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo
25. “You have a choice each and every single day. I choose to feel blessed. I choose to feel grateful. I choose to be thankful. I choose to be happy.” – Unknown
Related: Top 21 Quotes About Being There For Someone
References
- Portions of this article were adapted from the book Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families, © 2019 by Gary Chapman & Jolene Philo. All rights reserved.
