Talk to your children about Parkinson's Disease. Let them ask questions.
Communication: Talk to your children about... - Cure Parkinson's
Communication
Written by
Joealt
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6 Replies
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Two years ago, my 6 year old grandson asked me why I shake. I told him I had a disease called Parkinsons. His next question was will I get better and I told him no. He was the first of my 6 grandchildren to ask me about my health. It hasn't changed anything between us and hopefully he will not grow up to be one of those people who point and laugh at what they don't understand. So I say yes, talk to your children and grandchildren they have a right to know.
Yes. CHildren do well with truth. Sometimes the scenarios they dream up are far worse than the real facts. Those of us who have PD are called upon to live a very important life, We are given an opportuinty to be a good example of how to live with an incurable disease.LOng after we have gone our children and grandchildren will remember how we lived with PD. WHat a great gift to give them..
in reply to Koko
A very good reply. 
I have two grandchildren - one is 7 and the other 3. I got the book My Gran has Parkinsons, but as my only visible symptom is a tremor, I have not given it to my older grandchild to read. This book goes deeper into problems which I feel may not affect me.
I have always encouraged questions, but there have not been many as they seem to accept me for what I am. I look after them both on a regular basis so suppose they think my tremor is normal for me.
I will answer their questions as and when they occur.
My 3 kids ask me about my "shaky hand", my youngest, Phoebe (5) put her hand on mine and said "I`ll stop it shaking for you daddy!"....I could have cried! I tell them my hand shakes because there is something wrong in my brain which makes it do that (I havent used the term Parkinsons yet) they ask "will it get better daddy?" and I tell them "no but the doctor has given me some tablets to help try and stop it" with that they carry on with whatever they`re doing, they are brilliant at accepting it. A couple of saturdays ago when I was with them I was eating a bowl of cereal...my hand started shaking, spilling milk and cereal everywhere! we all had a real good laugh about it and just carried on...it was sooooo funny!
Anyhow I just thought I`d share that with you
Andy
My kids are teens, when I was diagnosed, I sat down with a print out and talked to them about some of the stuff they might see such as the tremors, memory issues, etc. They already knew that I dropped things all of the time and if I bent over to pick it up, I would get very dizzy, each would rush to pick up the stuff I dropped!
Andy, I no longer eat cereal and milk, it was just a hazard waiting to happen! I now use yogurt instead of milk. Last week I spilled even that on the floor. The dog and cats helped take care of it. Now, when the dog sees me with a bowl, she is expecting me to drop it so she can have a snack!
