dyspraxiagirl

[dyspraxiagirl]

WE'RE GETTING A DYSPRAXIC CHARACTER IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA!!!!

Apparently one of the characters in the new season of Doctor Who will be dyspraxic. This is so important to see representation of a disorder that so many people either know nothing about or have misconceptions about.

Apparently the writers are conversing with the Dyspraxia Foundation to ensure that the portrayal is accurate.

[dyspraxiagirl]

This is especially heartbreaking when you're waitressing. Especially if the thing you drop is something like a butter knife that can neither damage nor be damaged and in trying to catch it you drop a tray of full wine glasses or an entire cheesecake...

Dyspraxia: You know it’d be funny if whilst carrying this mountain of items, I accidentally dropped one forcing you to try and catch it dropping everything else in the process.

Me….don’t you fucking d..

Dyspraxia: Whoops!

[dyspraxiagirl]

Dyspraxics

Although we often look where we’re going, we don’t always go where we’re looking…

[dyspraxiagirl]

Dyspraxia: You know it’d be funny if whilst carrying this mountain of items, I accidentally dropped one forcing you to try and catch it dropping everything else in the process.

Me….don’t you fucking d..

Dyspraxia: Whoops!

[dyspraxiagirl]

Me: Hey brain you know at the end of each limb you have hands and feet?…

Brain: …..

Me: That you can control…

Brain:…WHAAAATTT???

[dyspraxiagirl]

Us neurodivergent girls need this even more than most. I can't pick up on the cues that a guy is trouble, or even that he's flirting with me. I don't know when I'm supposed to be uncomfortable with their interaction with me versus when it's just me.

I've had friends (both male and female) add two miles to their walk home or insist on paying for a taxi to get me home safely. I've had them stare down men and tell them 'you do realise that she has no idea that you're flirting with her, right?' and steer me away from any who try to take advantage of that fact.

When I was 15, I had three women sit with me for over an hour in the middle of Edinburgh at night when I got lost and couldn't remember where I was meeting my mum and couldn't get in touch with her.

I have been saved many times over by the 'girl code' and I do the same any time I notice a girl in need. We look after each other.

a secret code between women: are you safe? in a contact of eyes. i’m here if you need me, the littlest shift of a skirt, of an inclined head, of watching the man who is asking you to smile, bitch. you aren’t alone on the walls of restrooms, i was where you are too. the quiet doling of emergency numbers, the shelters. the space between two women in a largely empty train station. the waiting game of two women strangers who walk, quietly and quickly, to their cars in abandoned parking lots, who watch to be sure the other leaves safely. text me you get home safe. the tally marks of drinks on hidden wrists, carefully disguised as other things ever since men picked up on what it meant and used it to target the “weakest link.” 

my father tells me we have nothing to worry about. last night he sent me one of those email chains that say at the top “Safety Tips For The Women In Your Life!!!! Don’t Let Her Die!!” 

me, and the stranger on the train. she is asleep and the man is asking me who i am going home to. i feel tears pricking the sides of my eyes. i am 13 while he towers over me. he reaches out one hand, and while i don’t know how she knows, she speaks up without opening her eyes: “If you touch my daughter, sir, I will murder you.” Whatever he grumbles is lost in history, because this moment I am so grateful for the existence of other people that I cannot breathe.

I am 19 and on my phone when i become aware of a 13 year old girl is smiling nervously at a man who’s saying disgusting things. I grab her arm. “There you are, cindy,” I say, and then look at the man like he is bile. “Do you need something from my sister?” i ask, and i walk away with her. she cries later.

this is the way of things: a silent, secret web. our promise to each other that despite our differences, when it comes to the wire, we become family, instantly. the unspoken promise. i’m here. i’m watching. i’ll witness.

[dyspraxiagirl]

So my 22nd birthday is on Saturday. I'm starting a new course at a new university that I'm really excited about, I've got job interviews lined up for part-time work to support myself through university, and my manager at my summer job this year has told me to contact her when I'm home next summer and she'll put me on the rota. I'll even get some hours over the Christmas holidays.

Two years ago, I was so desperately depressed. I didn't want to make it to 21. Eighteen months ago, I flunked out of university. I wanted to make it to 22 but I honestly didn't think I would. I felt so hopeless and useless. I felt like my life was over.

Now, I have a fresh start. I have amazing friends; some who stuck with me even when I wasn't being a great friend back, some new. I have opportunities. And I'm actually planning for the future.

I know that depression can make us feel like nothing is ever going to get better, but it will. It does. I promise.

[dyspraxiagirl]

Yeah, seriously. It used to be a running joke in my family whenever me or my brother gave my mum a school letter of 'how many weeks has this one been in your bag?'

Also, if you think your child might be being groomed or sent inappropriate messages, please do check their messages. Sometimes a breach of trust is the lesser of two evils when it comes to keeping your child safe.

things that are nOt okay:

going through your children’s things (phone, journals, backpack)

talking badly aBout your kid to other people

insulting your kid both to their face and behind their back

“this is my house you have no privacy”

hitting your kid

compare them to other kids

[dyspraxiagirl]

*gets insulted* Nah I don’t care, my mom has said worse to me

[dyspraxiagirl]

Sensory Overload?

So as some of you know, I wear colour-tinted glasses as I have Irlen Syndrome/Scotopic Sensitivity. It's been a long time since I've had to go without them for a full day.

Of course, because dyspraxia makes me very forgetful and I have a lot of problems understanding the signals my body gives me, I managed to get all the way to work before I realised that I had left my glasses at home the other day.

My employers were great, offered to let me go home and get them (I couldn't as my ride to work had already left and it would have taken four hours to get there and back by bus in the rural area I live.) Told me to let them know if I needed to take the day off (I can't afford to), took me off orders and onto running so I didn't have to deal with the screens of the tablets we use to take orders, and kept checking in with me that I was okay.

It was hell. Not only was everything too bright and giving me a really bad headache, every noise seemed so loud it was actually making me flinch and cringe away. My apron seemed too tight around my neck. My clothes felt really uncomfortable. And every minor touch was hell.

I couldn't focus on my usual 'waitress' script of acting normal, and whenever a customer did or said something that didn't fit with the normal routine (which happens multiple times a day and I deal with with only a little difficulty usually), it would completely throw me off.

I never realised how reliant I am on my glasses, or how difficult it used to be before I got them.

I don't know if this counts as sensory overload, or what. But whatever it was, it really wasn't fun.

#neurodiversity #dyspraxic problems #dyspraxia problems #dyspraxia #irlen syndrome #bad day at work

[dyspraxiagirl]

My mum used to call me her changeling child because I acted more fae than human.

Vaspy, I had an idea the other day. Given that the idea of changelings probably came from people not understanding an autistic child, and some autistic people identifying with that myth now that they know that, do you think pairing the phrase "changeling child" or something similar with the neurodiverse symbol would look good?

I would personally wear the fuck out of that. 

[dyspraxiagirl]

Irony is looking for work for seven months without any luck. Then applying for a job on a Tuesday evening, having an interview/trial shift on Wednesday, and starting work on Thursday.

#job search #work #irony

[dyspraxiagirl]

[dyspraxiagirl]

Friendly Reminder:

Disabled people do not have to “prove” they’re disabled and never should be expected too. Yes, they may still be able to go out, have fun, and even seem “normal” somedays but you can’t see how they feel. You don’t know what they’re going through or their pain. Don’t discount someone’s disability simply because they’re living their lives.

[dyspraxiagirl]

The #metoo movement confused me at first because people kept sharing stories that I didn't think were big deals. After all, they were things that have happened to me so often they've just become routine, or anecdotes.

I used to think it was a funny story to talk about my pervy PE teacher who used to line us up with our hands against the wall in our swimming costumes to check our feet before we got in the pool, and how he used to linger on the girls. About how he used to come in to the girls' changing room when we were changing to tell us to hurry up. About how he used to use me for demonstrations despite me being terrible at sports and was always a bit handsy. When I told one of my uni friends about it, she was shocked and asked me why no one came forward about it. I told her that most of the girls in my class complained about him to the other teachers and we were told to stop being so foolish before we ruined a good man's career. We never did anything more about it because we were 12. When our teachers told us that he wasn't doing anything wrong, we listened to them. To this day, I'm not entirely sure if he was actually doing something wrong or if we overreacted. All I know is that 12 year old me felt uncomfortable.

A year later, there was this guy at my school who found it hilarious to follow me around harassing me. He'd do the usual 13 year old boy things like pinging bra straps, slapping my bum etc, but it escalated to him exposing himself to me and touching himself in front of me. When I told him that if he didn't stop, I'd report him, I was told by my classmates and friends that it wasn't a big deal, he was just joking, it wasn't like he was actually interested in me. As if that made it better.

When I saw him again at 17 at a party, he tried to get me to sleep with him. When I said no, he proceeded to try and get me drunk and spent the rest of the night following me around grinding against me. Every time I got free and told him to fuck off, he'd wait 20 minutes or so and then try again: obviously assuming I'd eventually be too drunk to turn him down (luckily for me I wasn't drinking as much as he thought I was). It got so bad I had to phone my mum to pick me up and wait with the adults supervising for her to arrive. Maybe if his behaviour had been checked at 13, it would never have graduated to that point.

Over the years I've been groped times more than I can count, I've had my drink spiked, I've had rape threats on the street, I've had guys try to take advantage of me not understanding what they're asking me to get me to go somewhere isolated with them. I've thankfully never been assaulted, but that's in part due to the fact that I have amazing friends who keep me safe when I misread social cues.

Honestly I'm not sure if these things even count as sexual harassment. I've been told so many times told I'm overreacting, or had people say that it's my fault for putting myself in these situations; yet I've also seen people coming forward about similar things.

I think it's just ingrained in girls from a young age that these things aren't a big deal. And often, boys are never taught what counts as appropriate behaviour. So these things go unchecked.

#tw: sexual harassment #me too movement

[dyspraxiagirl]

Considering that I am currently covered in bruises and grazes and scrapes and very nearly ended up with a broken arm today due to the 'mischief' of a dog that I look after during the day for free to avoid his owners having to either leave him alone for very long periods of time each day or give him away; my tolerance for doggy mischief is at an all time low today.

dogs are incapable of sin

[dyspraxiagirl]

My mum always says it's the parents' responsibility, not the schools.

Not only is this hypocritical considering that she never actually bothered to teach me and my brother anything; it's a stupid premise as not every parent will actually do it, not every kid has a responsible adult to teach them, and some parents might not know the information themselves.

I had to teach both my girlfriend and my friend in uni what a dental dam was and how to use one, as well as other ways for women to protect themselves during sex with girls. The friend in question had had casual sex with multiple people, including several girls and had no idea that girls could contract STIs from other girls.

How many young people do you think there are unaware that using certain lubes with latex condoms will degrade the material and make them more likely to break?

Making schools teach students about their body and intimacy ensures that everyone gets the information necessary to protect themselves.

#sex education #inclusive sex ed #lgbt sex ed