I was having dinner with a prospective employer (S) last night. He runs a company that consulted on the IT systems at a previous job, and we always got on well.
I knew he had three children, and his youngest one skied into a tree last season and had to have a facial reconstruction and some amazingly expensive dental surgery. Apparently she's doing well now, apart from having to go back every year for more surgery - she smashed her jaw so badly that the growth plates fused when they healed, and they have to be reset every year until she's 18 or so. Ouch.
Then he tells me that his oldest, at 14, was diagnosed with ADHD in Grade 4, and has been at a special school since then. Apparently it's done wonders, which one would expect at a cost of $11,000 a year. And now the youngest one has also been diagnosed with the same thing. She's just completed being coded, and he was lamenting the fact that he'd love to send her to the same school, but just doesn't see how he's going to afford it.
I was sitting there watching him talk, and thinking that I simply couldn't handle the heartache and worry that he must have gone through in the last year. I think I'd just want to shoot myself.
People tell me that being a parent is the most amazing job in the world, but I'm sure that sometimes it sure as hell doesn't feel that way. Congratulations to all the parents out there - you're a stronger person than me.
