157: Friendships with People Who Don’t Have Disabled Kids w/ Jillian Arnold

The Rare Life

Friendship, especially with those who don’t have disabled children, gets more complicated once you’ve had your own child with disabilities. It’s not necessarily fair, but it doesn’t change the fact that we often end up interacting differently with friends we had before our children were born.
In this episode of The Rare Life, I’m joined by Jillian Arnold, host of her own disability parent podcast and mom to Roman and Stella, who both have ASMD (a.k.a. Niemann Pick Disease Type A/B).

We dig into all the aspects of befriending and maintaining friendships with parents who don’t have disabled children. We cover the logistical difficulties, the triggers that come up for us, the beautiful parts, and how to stay empathetic to those who are experiencing the world so differently from us.

This is a gem of an episode, and it was made possible by our generous sponsor Moog Medical. They are so dedicated to our children with medical complexity that they've created an entire Feeding Pump Guide to share with anyone who cares for your child to help operate and troubleshoot your Infinity pump.

Links:

Visit MOOG’s website to learn about all the resources they’ve created to support your tube-fed child (and you!)

Listen to Ep 151: Befriending Other Disability Parents.

Listen to Ep 95: Parable of the Pain Scale.

Listen to Jillian’s podcast Confessions of a Rare Disease Mama.

Visit Jillian’s website to raise funds to cure her children’s rare disease ASMD (a.k.a. Niemann Pick Disease Type A/B).

Follow Jillian on Instagram @confessionsofararediseasemama!

Follow us on Instagram @the_rare_life!

Donate to the podcast or Contact me about sponsoring an episode.

Follow the Facebook page.

Join the Facebook group Parents of Children with Rare Conditions.

Access the transcript on the website here.

And if you love this podcast, please leave us a rating or review in your favorite podcast app!