Maximiliane Smith

Creating a healthy and purpose-driven life.

Please Don’t Give My Brother THIS Advice

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Living with someone who has special needs, you tend to focus on establishing certain skills. You try to grow a foundation of skills that hopefully can be used at some point in the future to gain independence.

However something that has recently gotten in the way of that for my family is when others offer their life advice to my brother, completely contradicting whatever we’re trying to teach him. They always mean well, and it’s never advice that’s terrible. It’s simply not advice that is particularly helpful or relevant to my brother or any other special needs child.

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11 Life Lessons I’ve Learned From My Brother

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My brother is 17 years old, and he is my best friend. While I moan and gripe about how difficult and annoying he is, I don’t know what or who I’d be without him. Over the years I’ve learned so much from him, it’s incredible!

I spend a whole bunch of time with my family, more than most young adults, but that has its own set of reasons. One of them being that I help homeschooling my brother, which let me tell you tests my patience on a daily basis.

In addition to being all of the amazing things he is, my brother is developmentally delayed, has ADD (or ADHD, or both), is somewhere on the Spectrum and has learning disabilities. Life has not been kind or gentle to him, and it certainly hasn’t been easy. Even though he faces a gazillion challenges, that most of us have the luxury of not understanding, he still wakes up with a big smile (on most days) and lives each day fully.

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