by Whitney Barthel posted in Parenting

?Dumber than someone with Down syndrome.? That is what he said.

A little background: I have a 6-year-old son with Down syndrome. He is my world and the light of my family?s life.
A few weeks ago, a handful of my co-workers and myself decided to mosey on down to a bar next door to our workplace after closing up shop. We drank, sang karaoke, and all had a great time.
That is, right until we were all bidding our goodbyes outside the door. The five of us stood in a circle, idle with chitchat, not being of one conversation, but not being completely separate either.
Across the circle I don?t know what my two male co-workers were talking about but one sentence immediately sounded alarms in my head. My ears perked up as my brain processed the words, ?He?s dumber than someone with Down syndrome.? I didn?t even have time to think. I responded, ?Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Not cool, Jason. Dumber than someone with Down syndrome" Seriously"?
Everyone looked at me like I had snakes coming from my ears, because anyone who knows me knows I am possibly the least confrontational person in the world.
?Oh, Whitney. I?m so sorry. I?m buzzed. I didn?t mean it. I?m referring to someone else with Down syndrome.?
He then went on to say the other person with Down syndrome was a product of his inadequate mother, but I was an excellent mother, so my son with Down syndrome was completely different than the person he meant to insult.
?It is not that child?s fa...