October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month! - END the "R" word!

Oh where to even begin with this one!  I HATE the word.  Plain and simple.  It is mean and offensive.  Am I being extra sensitive because my son has Down syndrome?  No, I have NEVER liked the word.  I am now, more than ever, grateful for my parents who never allowed me to use this word.  No one in my house would have ever been disrespectful enough to use the "N" word, and the "R" word was taught to us as being just as hateful.

I cringe even more when I hear it now, knowing all the pain it will bring to my family.  I WILL one day have to explain to Wyatt, Hazel, AND CLAY!!! what this word means, why it is NOT to be tolerated, and why someone is saying it to demean my child.  This makes me cry just thinking about it.  No one wants our kids to be made fun of.  Do you want your child to be called four eyes or teased because they have zits?  This is nothing they can help.

Please remember that YOUR child does not know this word until YOU teach it to them!  Mental retardation is a MEDICAL term used to describe someone who is slow or limited in intellectual development.  Even in the medical world, this term is now outdated and being replaced with the term "intellectual disability".  So when you say, "my hair looks retarded", you are using the word to replace "stupid", therefore calling an entire group of people who were BORN with a DISABILITY stupid.  That is just NOT nice.

So please!  Make an effort to erase this word from your vocabulary and end the cycle of name calling.

Learn more and take the pledge to end the r-word here - http://www.r-word.org/