Article affirms families' challenges

As a parent of three children with special needs, I want to thank you for the column ("A parental juggling job," Dec. 14). It was affirming for those of us who exist in the shadows simply to be recognized and to be given a sense that others who have had more luck than us might learn something. I deeply appreciated the reporter acknowledging that parents like me have less money because the demands of the illnesses our children suffer from compromise our ability to stay in the market, let alone be competitive. One other reason people like us suffer financially was not stated, but could be deduced by the story of the university worker whose daughter with Prader-Willi is now at the Cotting School.

In addition to giving up our careers in order to help our children, we often have to wage expensive and time-consuming legal battles just to get our children into appropriate educational settings, which is the only way we can hope to work again - and even then we are constrained by a school schedule with no option of after-care, and by therapy appointments in a variety of domains.

Thank you for recognizing this issue in a compassionate and thoughtful way - and in the business section!

Andrea Greenwood, Watertown

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