A father reacts to Margarita With A Straw..

A father reacts to Margarita With A Straw..

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As a parent of a cognitively challenged child I am looking forward to the release of Margarita With A Straw protagonist is saying ‘Hamaarey bhee armaan hain,’ or words to that effect, translating into ‘those with special needs also have sexual needs.’ Of course they do. And these need to be addressed openly, instead of being constantly shoved into the closet by our relatively conservative society.

Actually, it is the world outside of those we are talking about – ie the intellectually or otherwise challenged, and their caregivers – which has such a clearly delineated /linear idea about the entire gamut of issues relating to that dreaded, no go word, ‘sexuality’.

For us, as parents, it has more to do with that almost invisible and yet, paradoxically, highly felt, transition from bedwetting accidents to. Now how do I say all that ‘unmentionable’ stuff?

In our case, with our twenty something young man, the wetting happened mostly due to seizures. But many times, beyond the age of 13-14, and now at 20 plus, the pants are wet, for another reason than the mere loss of bladder control. Full stop.

Yet , none of the above is ‘A-Z’s articulation. I say ‘A to Z’ to incorporate my son and millions like him, who are young men with special needs, mostly nonverbal, unable to speak for themselves (or write for themselves, as the case may be). He’s my son and I speak for what I think is him. He speaks a few basic words to get to his basic needs, essentially for food recreation and sometimes for survival.

via NorthEast Calling http://ift.tt/1yhnPrr