When Everett was about 6 months old we took him to have his picture made with Santa at a local mall. When we got settled into the long line of families waiting for their obligatory Santa photos, we realized the parents in front of us had a daughter with Down syndrome. Her name was Meagan and she was about 5-years-old. Meagan was an adorable little girl but I no
ticed her mom was having a hard time wrangling her because Meagan liked to run away. She darted all over that mall with her mother trailing her from store to store. And I’ll have to confess…this concerned me. While I was glad to see that Meagan was so physically active, I envisioned a future for myself that would involve me wrangling Everett. A lot. This fear was definitely warranted. Like Meagan, Everett has a mind of his own. And when he gets it in his mind to go somewhere…he runs for it. I chase him down and practically hogtie him every morning when it’s time to get dressed. And you should see the scene he makes when it’s time to leave a playground. This trend becomes really concerning when parking lots are involved, so I came up with a temporary solution. As you can see in this photo, however, the “runaway” fear isn’t necessarily Down syndrome specific ?. 