Thanks for the link, Terry. I've bookmarked it, I'll take more time later on to look at it. I'm right between cooking dinner and organising family right now, I took a few minutes to check CD. I've offended a few people on another thread and I just wanted to check to see if I'd got any more critical PMs!
I'm putting it down to a classic example of extreme cultural difference between the US and Australia - while there is a lot I love about Australia I know the place is far from perfect and there are a lot of things you have in the US that we don't. But some things I suggested are actually what happens here, apparently successfully. The disbelief with which my comments were met (I'm not offended, only backing right out of that discussion because clearly I don't understand at all) showed me another area in which there is a HUGE cultural gulf; always a surprise to me, because Australians get criticised by our own for trying to be more like Americans. Clearly, we have a long way to go!
On the subject of acceptance of disability - easy child 2/difficult child 2 grew up looking after me. If I dropped my crutches she would pick them up for me, not even thinking. At school there was a boy with cerebral palsy. He sometimes chose to crawl if he'd left his crutches too far away. She would see it and go fetch his crutches without being asked. It was something she grew up being used to, she didn't think about it. She wasn't trying to be kind, just doing what she saw needed to be done as part of a group working together.
We do what we're used to. We accept what we understand. Everything else takes a little longer!
Marg
