Annette sits down with Amber Bobnar, who runs the very popular WonderBaby website. WonderBaby is a website that is packed full of valuable resources for parents raising children that have visual impairments and other disabilities.
Topics on her website range from tips on raising children that have visual impairments, toy reviews and recommendations for children with disabilities, sleep, eating and nutrition advice as well as assistive technology, and parent advice on how to have a constructive IEP meeting with your school system. And much more! Articles are written by Amber as well as a whole host of other informational pieces by contributors across the globe.
Articles are translated into several languages including Arabic, Spanish and Dutch.
Annette and Amber start by discussing how special needs parents need to be, and end up being experts in so many areas. If your child has multiple disabilities, you end up having to educate yourself in other areas to adequately advocate for your special needs loved one. Amber started WonderBaby in 2006 after belonging to many chat groups and other outlets to gain and share information about her son Ivan and his disabilities. She felt that there needed to be a place where parents could find this information easily.
Amber talks to Annette about the important topic of self-care and offers some advice to special needs parents and caregivers. First, she says you need to learn to say no. The word no is very powerful and can save you from entering into commitments that can take you away from your responsibilities and save you from exhaustion. Second, she says to have something that you enjoy for yourself and she reveals what she does to have fun in this podcast.
And she also finds a way to say yes to certain things in her life such as a good friend asking her out to lunch. She feels that incredibly important for your mental wellbeing.
Her final piece of advice? Take a nap every once in a while!
Find out more about the incredible resources at WonderBaby below:
http://www.wonderbaby.org/sites/wonderbaby2.perkinsdev1.org/files/wonderbaby-flyer.pdf