by Whitney Barthel posted in Parenting

Daniel, my son with Down syndrome, can be a little stinker. He?s what professionals in the education system call ?a runner.? This fall, after walking Dan into the front doors of the school and watching him walk to his locker, he sneakily walked right back out the doors after I had already driven away.

I later got a call from Daniel?s teacher that the little bugger ended up running down 5th Street with half a dozen teachers chasing him. I can picture it now, Dan running and occasionally turning to laugh at the middle-aged women yelling and chasing after him.
Now, it?s quite funny and I?m thankful that, just for once, it wasn?t me chasing him.
The thing with Daniel is he can be brilliant and charming, but, as I mentioned,  he can also be a little stinker. Like the times all the other kids get into the Suburban and climb into their boosters and wait to be buckled while Daniel crawls in the way back and I have to contort my body and nearly break an arm to drag him into his seat. Or, the time I ran into the house to get my coffee after loading the boys up for school (a day where we absolutely had to be there at 8:15 because we needed to get on the bus for Frankie?s field trip) and Daniel wiggled himself loose from his booster seat, locked all the doors, and laid on the horn while I stood there yelling at him like a maniac, coffee in hand.
I was eventually able to talk him into pushing the unlock button between his honking and laughing a...