Expectations

Wouldn't life be great if those darn expectations didn't get in the way?

Growing up we are all fed with what life should, will, could be like when we grow up, we will meet our prince charming get married have 2,5 kids and a dog and ride into the sun set and live happily ever after. As we grow up and start living life we all find out that lifes just is not like this!

Society is full of these expectations if you do good at school you will go to university and will get a well paid exciting job, not always!

If when you get pregnant and do everything right, don't eat soft cheese, etc you will have a happy healthy baby, not always! (please what ever you do if you are pregnant don't read those what to expect when your expecting books, it never turns out the way they say it will!)

If you are a great wife and do everything for your husband attend to his every need he won't leave you for his much younger secretary, not always! (I think I have been watching too much Mad Men)

If you eat right, exercise regurly and generally look after yourself you will be healthy, and not get be ailled by what other people who don't look after themselves get such as heart attacks, strokes, cancer, osteoporosis, not always!

If you raise your child well, feed them well, give them everything they want, need, support them they will turn out to be well rounded adults, not always!

What I am trying to get to here is the reason we get so disappointed in life is because it doesn't always turn out the way we expected it to, what if we threw those expectations out of the window and just lived life to the full and rolled with whatever came our way.

The other day we had our last appointment, because we are moving, with Dr Frymann who is an Osteopath, at the Osteopathic centre for children in San Diego, we have been seeing her for a year she does cranial manipulation on Annabelle and when Annabelle is sick she gives her homeopathic medicine. We had a last consultation with her and her advice to me was "Expect Performance" there that word came up again, expectations.

When you are a parent of a special needs child you tend to lower your expectations because your child has never lived up to the typical expectations of a child and that waiting for things to happen is just excruciatingly painful so you place your expectations for your child in the bottom drawer to save your feelings. But may be Dr Frymann has a point you should "expect performance". If I had just sat back and did nothing and just thought Annabelle is the way she is and there's nothing we can do for her, I shudder to think what or where would she be today! Certainly a lot worse off?