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WORK TITLE: Not Always Happy
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.kariwagnerpeck.com/
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https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/kari-wagner-peck
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| 670 | __ |a Not always happy, 2017: |b eCIP t.p. (Kari Wagner-Peck) data view screen (writer, blogger, and a freelance development consultant while she homeschools her son; has been a professional advocate for homeless, incarcerated, and immigrant individuals and has worked as a documentary videographer, teaching videography at the college level; also has experience in arts management including development, event planning, and public speaking; her writing has been featured in the Huffington Post, The Good Men Project, the New York Times’ “Motherlode” blog, the Sydney Morning Herald, BLOOM, The Mighty, LOVE THAT MAX, Yahoo Parenting, Parents Magazine’s online site Parents, and Empowering Parents; currently resides in Portland, Maine) |
PERSONAL
Married; husband’s name Ward; children: Thorin (son).
EDUCATION:University of Wisconsin-Eu Claire, B.A.; University of Iowa, M.S.W., 1989.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Humorist, storyteller/performer, and writer. Training Resource Center (Portland, ME), project coordinator, 1993-99; University of New England, media specialist, 1999-2007; Maine Jewish Film Festival, 2007-12; Bluestocking Film Series, development director, 2013-16.
WRITINGS
Her writings have appeared in New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post, Good Men Project and Love That Max. Authors the blog a typical son. Also wrote, performed, and produced the theater piece Not Always Happy.
SIDELIGHTS
Kari Wagner-Peck is a humorist, storyteller/performer, and writer. Her writings have appeared in the New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post, Good Men Project, and Love That Max. She also wrote, performed, and produced the theater piece Not Always Happy, which Huffington Post describes as a “social justice storytelling performance on finding and raising a son who lives with Down syndrome.” Nearing the age of fifty, Wagner-Peck and her husband, who was thirty-five, adopted a a two-year-old boy with Down’s through the Maine foster care system. As she homeschooled her son, Thorin, she began to write a blog about the experience. She told Psychology Today: “I wrote about our journey as I experienced it: funny, feisty, optimistically, and filled with memorable characters.” She thought of her story as “a universal experience in spite of its unusualness.” The story became her first book, Not Always Happy: An Unusual Parenting Journey. The contributor to Psychology Today called the book “astonishing in revealing how confidently and lovingly [she] approached creating a relationship” with Thorin.
A critic in Publishers Weekly termed the book “poignant,” saying that Wagner-Peck “relates their challenges and progress with great equanimity, sharing her perseverance as well as her fury.” In the Portland Press Herald Online, Heidi Sistare commented: “Nothing is sugarcoated, and Wagner-Peck doesn’t offer any easy, reductive moralizing.” Kate Irish Collins, writing in Forecaster, quoted Wagner-Peck: “My son has dreams, desires and goals. He loves reading, math and making up stories. He goes to theater, dance and movie classes.” Collins added: “Not Always Happy contains both humor and pathos, while also sharing universal lessons about parenthood and life taking unexpected turns.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 17, 2017, review of Not Always Happy: An Unusual Parenting Journey, p. 64.
ONLINE
Forecaster (Falmouth, ME), http://www.theforecaster.net/, Kate Irish Collins, review of Not Always Happy.
HuffPost, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/kari-wagner-peck (January 9, 2018), author profile.
Kari Wagner Peck Website, https://www.kariwagnerpeck.com/ (January 9, 2018).
Portland Press Herald Online, http://www.pressherald.com (November 19, 2017), Heidi Sistare, review of Not Always Happy.
Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com (May 18, 2017), author interview.
Kari Wagner-Peck
3rd degree connection3rd
Author & Storyteller
Not Always Happy University of Iowa
Portland, Maine 204 204 connections
Connect Connect with Kari Wagner-Peck More actions
Experienced Writer and Blogger with a demonstrated history of working in the writing and editing industry.
Skilled in Nonprofit Organizations, Activism, Event Management, Editing, and Media Relations. Strong media and communication professional with a M.S.W. focused in Social Work from University of Iowa.
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Experience
Not Always Happy
Storyteller
Company NameNot Always Happy
Dates EmployedMay 2015 – Present Employment Duration2 yrs 9 mos
LocationPortland, Maine Area
Based on her book, NOT ALWAYS HAPPY, this choose-your-own-adventure-style, live storytelling performance features a dozen funny, touching, and subversive true-life tales about finding and raising the mighty Thorin that will definitely make you laugh and most likely change how you think about people with Down syndrome. Written and performed by Kari Wagner-Peck and director / dramturg Bess Welden. 60 minutes.
https://www.kariwagnerpeck.com/
Blogger / Writer
Company Namehttps://www.kariwagnerpeck.com/
Dates EmployedApr 2010 – Present Employment Duration7 yrs 10 mos
LocationPortland, Maine Area
I write funny & sharp & we have a kid with Down syndrome. Social commentary, disability, homeschooling, advocacy/activism, parenting, humor & swearing
Central Recovery Press
Book Author
Company NameCentral Recovery Press
Dates EmployedMay 2017 – Present Employment Duration9 mos
LocationPortland, Maine Area
Not Always Happy is a humorous and sharp chronicle about adopting and raising a son with Down syndrome from the Maine foster care system. The author quickly learns that life is best lived by expecting the unplanned when she makes the decision to become a parent in her late forties. As her unconventional family moves along in this life, she and her husband are less aware they are raising an atypical child or an adopted child. They are raising their child, and their family struggles with the same universal themes that any family goes through.
Media (1)This position has 1 media
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Bluestocking Film Series
Development Director
Company NameBluestocking Film Series
Dates EmployedJan 2013 – Oct 2016 Employment Duration3 yrs 10 mos
LocationPortland, Maine Area
Bluestocking Film Series is a festival showcasing complex women characters in film.
Maine Jewish Film Festival
Executive and Artistic Director
Company NameMaine Jewish Film Festival
Dates EmployedSep 2007 – Oct 2012 Employment Duration5 yrs 2 mos
LocationPortland, Maine
Curate a program of films and visiting guest artists
Development: foundation grants, business sponsorship, the annual fund, major gift solicitation
Event planning
Community outreach
Supervise paid and volunteer staff
Marketing, public relations and website content
University of New England
Media Specialist
Company NameUniversity of New England
Dates Employed1999 – 2007 Employment Duration8 yrs
LocationBiddeford, Maine
Created digital video productions (documentary, training, educational, fundraising, commercial television, recruitment, promotional, and achievement)
Founder and director of Cookies Shorts, an international film and video festival
Beijing Film Academy, Beijing, China, Visiting Scholar
Represented the department in outreach, publicity and events
Developed marketing content, press releases and website content
Department of Creative and Fine Arts, Adjunct Faculty
Advisor, Film Club
Training Resource Center
Project Coordinator
Company NameTraining Resource Center
Dates EmployedSep 1993 – Sep 1999 Employment Duration6 yrs 1 mo
LocationPortland, Maine Area
Created an innovative youth program serving low-income, homeless, incarcerated, parenting and immigrant teens
Developed and presented curriculum
Responsible for hiring employees, employee coaching, performance improvement plans, corrective actions and employment terminations
Supervised staff and peer counselors
Responsible for maintaining state and federal standards
Assisted in grant proposals and budget management of federal and state monies
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Education
University of Iowa
University of Iowa
Degree NameM.S.W. Field Of StudySocial Work
Dates attended or expected graduation 1986 – 1989
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Degree NameB.A. Field Of StudyPsychology
KARI WAGNER-PECK, MSW, authors the blog, a typical son. She is a homeschooling mom, a humorist, advocate, activist and storyteller/performer and a pop culture fiend. Her debut memoir, NOT ALWAYS HAPPY, was published May 2017 by Central Recovery Press. Her writing has been featured on The New York Times Well Family blog , the Sydney Morning Herald, the Huffington Post, the Good Men Project and Love That Max. (photo: Betsy Carson/All Art Media)
Contact me at: kariwagnerpeck [at] gmail [dot] com
Kari Wagner-Peck
Social Commentary/Social Justice Storytelling on disability, parenting & homeschooling
Kari Wagner-Peck lives with her husband and son in Maine. She is a blogger (atypicalson.com), writer, storyteller and development consultant who unschools with her son. She is the author of the memoir Not Always Happy: An Unusual Parenting Journey to be published May, 2017. She's also the writer/performer/producer of the theatrical production Not Always Happy -- a social justice storytelling performance on finding and raising a son who lives with Down syndrome. She has been published at The New York Times Motherlode Blog, The Huffington Post, The Good Men Project, The Sydney Morning Herald Daily Life section, Parents, BLOOM and Love That Max among others.
About us
We wanted a kid. There was the briefest exploration in to fertility assistance but that seemed most likely to result in pregnancy and one of us didn’t want to be pregnant. Then, we said we would only adopt internationally. It took almost two years to come to the reality we couldn’t afford that.
We than decided to enter the world of State adoption. We said we only wanted a child who had been terminated legally from their biological parents so we would never have to deal with the uncertainty of losing the kid. In State parlance it is called TPR (termination of parental rights). And – finally, we didn’t want a child with a disability.
We ended up with a two-year-old boy with Down syndrome who was not TPR’d at the time we brought him home.
Clearly, we knew nothing about anything.
My intention in writing about our son and our lives is to echo the words of Walt Whitman that our son– and the rest of the world– lives every moment –
I exist as I am, that is enough.
I can be reached: atypicalson@gmail.com
Kari Wagner-Peck believes disability is a natural part of life not to be feared or pitied. She lives with her husband and son in Portland, Maine. She has been published at The Huffington Post, The Good Men Project, Parents, BLOOM, The New York Times Motherlode Blog, among other sites.
Not Always Happy
The Book Brigade talks to developmental consultant and writer Kari Wagner-Peck.
Posted May 18, 2017
Used with permission of author Kari Wagner-Peck.
Source: Used with permission of author Kari Wagner-Peck.
If parents do their job right, and don’t seek perfection through childrearing, their children can become who they were meant to be at a young age. Otherwise they may spend a lifetime figuring out what other people want of them.
Your book is subtitled “An unusual parenting journey.” What is unusual about your parenting journey?
I became not just Thorin’s mother but a mother, period, when I was 49 years old and my husband, Ward, was 35. We adopted a child with a disability through our state’s foster care system. I became a homeschooler. I also said I would never do any of those things: adopt from foster care, adopt a child with a disability, homeschool, or even date my husband, given his age. Maybe it’s unusual to let life happen rather than thinking you have all the answers.
What prompted you to write this book?
I started a blog in 2010 about my family. I didn’t connect to much in the blogosphere about raising a child with Down syndrome (DS). The websites were either medically based or written by parents who wrote almost exclusively from their experience rather than their child’s. I was interested in understanding the child’s perspective. I couldn’t find that, so I decided to write about it myself. I wrote about our journey as I experienced it: funny, feisty, optimistically, and filled with memorable characters. Only about 30 percent of what I write is specifically about DS. The growing connection with readers over the years gave me confidence to write a book. My story is a universal experience in spite of its unusualness.
You adopted a son with Down syndrome. For any particular reason?
It just felt right, which on the face of it seems strange. We made it clear to DHHS that the biggest disability we could handle was a child who was left-handed or maybe color-blind. Then our foster-care worker left a voicemail about a 2-year-old boy who had DS. Within minutes of listening to that message together, Ward and I experienced a shared sense of calm. A profound sense actually. It sounds mystical but it was a very natural feeling that we came to rely on when things got confusing. Thorin felt like our son.
How do people misunderstand those with Down syndrome?
We have relegated people with Down syndrome to the role of the perceptual child who is capable of a singular emotion—happiness. I cannot count how many times we have heard that expression, “They are always so happy.” Not true. My son is a complex individual. He has dreams, hopes and goals. It just takes Thorin longer to realize his accomplishments. I’m a late bloomer so I get taking longer.
And how do people mistreat them?
Most aggressively, people with DS and disabilities in general are more apt to be victims of sexual and physical exploitation. They are more apt to be recipients of bullying and victims of restraint and seclusion in schools. They are more apt to live in poverty as adults. It’s not a pretty picture. We see disability as abnormal. The further someone’s identity is from the norm, the more we objectify that individual to the point that we dehumanize them.
We don’t see neurodiversity as any other diversity. We are not all the same neurologically. What if that was simply a difference?
When you learned of the possibility of adopting a child with Down syndrome, you said, ”everyone has something.” That moved me to tears. Tell me how you believe it is true.
Thorin’s foster-care worker—whom I adore and to whom I am forever grateful—shared something with me that was powerful. She said, “It’s better if you’ve had some difficulty in life. Something you’ve had to overcome. It will make you accept your foster child more as they are.” I absolutely believe that. I was sexually abused as a child, and later I was in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship. I know it takes time to overcome life events. Nothing happens overnight. I also saw this in clients I worked with as a social worker. I came quite naturally to understand that we all have something that makes us vulnerable in the world. It can be a point of understanding rather than a weakness. Certainly children in foster care have had something happen—more likely several things, including the destruction of their family.
Life is messy. Parenting is messy. What lessons did you learn the hard way?
I wish I had had more confidence at potty training. I incorrectly believed it was an insurmountable task with a child who had Down syndrome. That was reinforced by experts and other parents. Thorin and I ended up going to a behavioral clinic called Potty University. I learned quite rightly that I was the problem. I was messaging to him that he couldn’t do it. He could do it—and easily, I might add. I bought into a diminished view of my child. As parents, we can either confirm our child’s sense of self or send anxious messages. My anxiety caused a tremendous amount of pee outside the bathroom. Very messy.
Is there an easy way to learn anything about parenting?
Treat your relationship with your child like any relationship. You do not know everything. You will make mistakes. Same for your child. The golden rule isn’t a bad idea either. And remember, your child has a central nervous system: Yelling and screaming is damaging to it.
What do you think many parents today get wrong about parenting?
We overparent. It exhausts the child and the parent. Pick your battles. Good grief, there is so much you can just ignore. I don’t ignore safety issues, but the rest of it—the annoying and niggling behavior? Just go in the other room.
Many parents today, especially in the middle and upper class, seem to be trying to develop a perfect child. What’s your take on that?
We are all susceptible to insecurities. If we are intent on comparing our children to other children, we will forever be lost and our children will be, too. There is no perfection, thank goodness! Parents can be facilitators of the individual experience or dictators of the masses.
What was the biggest mistake you made, and what did you get from it?
I didn’t understand that our son was falling apart because of school. Ward and I were so intent on fighting for inclusion in school for our son that we failed to see that a 6-year-old boy is not an effective social change agent. I’m using social work lingo here, but Thorin’s job was to learn, not to change an archaic system that is hostile to children with disabilities. For us that meant: Thorin, who lives with Down syndrome, does not have to stay in school to try and make the system better for all students with disabilities. Instead, Thorin can leave school to learn at home, which has been a fantastic journey.
Your book is astonishing in revealing how confidently and lovingly you approached creating a relationship with your son. How far do love and confidence go in the child-raising business?
What I had going for me is that I completely fell in love with this little person. My only thought was, How can I make this work? My son called me Ba for 18 months instead of Mom. I could have been devastated. Instead I thought, “Yeah it sucks, but whatever.” I worked on not taking it personally, which I find works for most of parenting.
The parent experts in our adoption classes told us emphatically that love is not enough, particularly with children in protective custody. We didn’t accept that. We decided love is enough. But relationships take time, patience, and nurturing —therapy, crying into a pillow, screaming at the sky.
What is the single most important piece of advice you have for parents?
Children arrive as complete humans who continue to develop. Your job is to stay out of the way as much as possible. If they are very lucky, they can become who they were meant to be at a young age rather than going through life figuring out what other people want of them.
About THE AUTHOR SPEAKS: Selected authors, in their own words, reveal the story behind the story. Authors are featured thanks to promotional placement by their publishing houses.
“To purchase this book, visit:”
Not Always Happy
Not Always Happy: An Unusual Parenting Journey
Publishers Weekly.
264.16 (Apr. 17, 2017): p64+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Not Always Happy: An Unusual Parenting Journey
Kari Wagner-Peck. Central Recovery, $15.95 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-942094-37-1
When author Wagner-Peck and her husband adopted a son, Thorin, with Down syndrome, their learning curve was steep. Peck recounts their journey in this intimate peek at three individuals who had to overcome many obstacles before becoming, in Peck's words, a "forever family." Navigating state bureaucracies and compliance issues was among the challenges they faced. So were awkward, well-meaning neighbors, Thorin's occasionally overbearing biological sibling, a grandmother with misgivings, and a large and varied cast of medical professionals. Some challenges were simply the ones that every new parent endures, possibly exacerbated, Wagner- Peck suggests, by her being a 50-year-old first-time parent. This family, however, had a few additional challenges that parents of "typicals" don't often encounter (beginning with suspicious TSA agents). Navigating the educational system with a special-needs child was one of the family's biggest and most difficult hurdles. They encountered faculty members with outdated approaches, poorly trained aides, and a multitude of administrative roadblocks. Wagner-Peck relates their challenges and progress with great equanimity, sharing her perseverance as well as her fury. Her "mom lessons" near the book's conclusion, as well as some poignant final moments in the narrative, will leave many readers teary-eyed. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Not Always Happy: An Unusual Parenting Journey." Publishers Weekly, 17 Apr. 2017, p. 64+.
PowerSearch, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A490820848/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=f50cccc0. Accessed 19 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490820848
Book review: A mother’s honest exploration of raising a child with Down syndrome
In 'Not Always Happy,' author Kari Wagner-Peck offers real-life stories about her son and his all-too-human parents.
By HEIDI SISTARE
Nine months after Kari Wagner-Peck received a phone call about a little boy named Thorin, he became free for adoption. The months in between are filled with social workers, supervised visits with Thorin’s birth mom, Individualized Education Program meetings and learning to be Thorin’s parent.
Wagner-Peck’s mother explains to her daughter, “You won’t get a child without experiencing great pain. For you and Ward, this time waiting for the court date is your labor.”
REVIEW
“Not Always Happy.” By Kari Wagner-Peck. Central Recovery Press. May 16, 2017. 262 pages. Paperback. $16.95.
“Not Always Happy” is Wagner-Peck’s story of adopting a toddler through Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services. It is her story of choosing to be a mother, and then learning to be a mother. It is a story about the state’s foster care system and public education. And, it is a story about Thorin, a young man who likes cooking, the Avengers, and taking pictures. He has Down syndrome, is skilled at manipulating his mother and practices theater and dance.
The story is full of examples of people persevering in ways that are extraordinary. Thorin uses his creativity and imagination to survive very difficult circumstances in school. Thorin’s sister, Jade, walks to the police station at 10 years old, seeking help for her family and saving Thorin from neglect.
Wagner-Peck and her husband, Ward, choose to bring home a child when they do not know if he will be allowed to stay with them. They advocate for their son in settings where educators physically restrain him, question his ability to communicate and are resistant to placing him in a general education classroom.
Ultimately, they choose to homeschool Thorin, and Wagner-Peck and Thorin embark on a new educational journey together. This process includes role confusion (“I call you Kari?” Thorin asks on day one of homeschooling), crying (mostly mom) and developing a new sense of self that is free from “narrow opinions” and instead offers a view that is “clear and open and full of possibility.”
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As Wagner-Peck points out, extraordinary parenting is ordinary, because being a parent is always an extraordinary undertaking.
Kari Wagner-Peck Photo by Betsy Carson/All Art Media
It’s easy to imagine that Wagner-Peck’s writer voice is close to her mother voice – she is witty and honest. Nothing is sugarcoated, and Wagner-Peck doesn’t offer any easy, reductive moralizing. Instead, the reader gets real-life stories about a child and parents who are not saint-like but are in fact, very human. This view leads to some of the funnier moments of “Not Always Happy.”
Early on, before Thorin’s adoption is finalized, his guardian ad litem visits the family regularly. She does something to irritate Wagner-Peck, who makes sure this woman gets stuck behind a child gate during her next visit. There are early moments of self-conscious mothering, ” ‘It’s a lion!’ I said followed by a roar. I had never fake roared in my life, and listening to myself, I realized even I wasn’t buying it.”
Then there is Thorin refusing to call Wagner-Peck mom and showing up for home schooling naked, a far-cry from what Wagner-Peck had imagined. “When I was merely a hypothetical parent, my theoretical child behaved as I instructed him.
On the day of Thorin’s adoption, Wagner-Peck and her husband launch a blog, “a typical son.” This book was born from that writing. “I found it isolating to figure out what was best for Thorin. Sharing what was happening on my blog made it less lonely.” Writing became a source of connection for Wagner-Peck.
Thorin finds his own creative ways to connect. For a period of time he uses a program on an iPad to support his ability to communicate. He also, of his own accord, begins taking pictures with the iPad camera. His documentary-style images reveal his vision of the world. “Not only was he telling us what he saw, but also what he felt,” Wagner-Peck notices.
Thorin’s photographs and Wagner-Peck’s writing challenge one of the more frightening human tendencies, to “other” people based on random differences that we select and choose to be important. Art offers the possibility for us to be reminded, again and again, of our shared humanness.
Heidi Sistare is a social worker and writer who lives in Portland. Contact her at:
heidi.sistare@gmail.com
Portland parent's book urges new view of Down syndrome
By Kate Irish Collins on August 7, 2017
1 comment
PORTLAND — Raising a child with a developmental disability has its challenges, but for Kari Wagner-Peck the hardest thing is fighting others’ low expectations for her son.
“People who have Down syndrome are as complex and individual as any other person,” Wagner-Peck said. “My son has dreams, desires and goals. He loves reading, math and making up stories. He goes to theater, dance and movie classes.”
And, she said, just like many other 10-year-olds, “he loves ‘The Avengers.’”
Wagner-Peck, who lives in Portland, has written a book, “Not Always Happy: An Unusual Parenting Journey,” that chronicles her adventures in adopting a child with Down syndrome.
In addition to being a writer and blogger, she also holds a master’s degree in social work and home-schools her son, Thorin.
On her web page, Wagner-Peck also describes herself as “a humorist, an advocate, an activist, a social justice storyteller and a pop culture fiend.”
In “Not Always Happy,” she tells the story of marrying and becoming a parent in her late 40s with both humor and pathos, while also sharing universal lessons about parenthood and life taking unexpected turns.
“This book is not a niche memoir, but a story that anyone can relate to,” she said.
She said she wants readers to “get caught up in the story and decide Down syndrome is not to be pitied or a cause for sorrow, but just a difference.”
Along with promoting her book, Wagner-Peck has also created a stage production of “Not Always Happy,” which won this year’s PortFringe prize for excellence in writing.
The show, which was directed by Bess Welden, was supported by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission.
When Wagner-Peck and her husband, Ward, decided to adopt, “(We told) the Department of Health and Human Services the biggest disability we could likely handle was a child who was left-handed or color blind.”
“In spite of that, (our caseworker) called us about a 2-year-old boy in a therapeutic foster home who had Down syndrome,” she said. But, for some reason, that didn’t dissuade them.
“In retrospect I would say we knew this was our child,” Wagner-Peck said. “Somehow we knew we were his parents.”
After deciding to adopt Thorin, Wagner-Peck said she and her husband did a lot of research into Down syndrome, but they were disappointed to learn that much of the information focused on the limitations.
“So we stopped reading about Down syndrome and decided we would just get to know and understand Thorin and not limit our lens or view of him to Downs,” she said.
The most painful part for her son, Wagner-Peck said, is that people stare at him every day, and “sometimes they (even) point their fingers or laugh … particularly other children.”
In raising their son, Wagner-Peck said, she and her husband “realized quite quickly that Thorin’s biggest disability is not Down syndrome, but society’s puny view of him.
“A great deal of the book is about the challenges of working with professionals – teachers, therapist, school administrators,” she said. “We were constantly asking that expectations be raised in regards to Thorin.”
“I experience the same joys all parents experience,” she added. “I love my son dearly. I never imagined I would be a stay-at-home parent. It really didn’t appeal to me. But, being home with Thorin has been amazing,” Wagner-Peck said. “Much of our learning is doing (and) my son’s social life is much bigger outside of school than it ever was in school.”
Wagner-Peck has been writing about her family for the past seven years, starting the blog, “A Typical Son,” in 2010.
She said the idea for the blog and her new book are the same.
“The goal was to present our life in the context we experience it – funny, messy and not just about Down syndrome. The stories (all) have a universal theme – inclusion,” Wagner-Peck said.
“Most of us can relate to being the outsider or being treated differently. My goal is for people to see that cognitive differences are like any diversity,” she said. “The same way we have worked to understand racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., we need to understand neurodiversity. Inclusion, understanding and acceptance is important to all people.”
Kate Irish Collins can be reached at 710-2336 or kcollins@theforecaster.net. Follow Kate on Twitter: @KirishCollins.
Kari Wagner-Peck with her son, Thorin. Wagner-Peck, of Portland, has written “Not Always Happy: An Unusual Parenting Journey,” a book about parenting a child with Down syndrome.