A little clumsy

Precious was born with hypotonia, or low muscle tone. She was so floppy when she was little she laid on her back with her legs in frog position for the first several months of her life, and she couldn’t sit up until after she was one year old. She walked around 22 months.

She still has trouble with falling down and balance compared to other kids her age. She has a tendency to fall a lot more than others, and she seems to have trouble either seeing things in her periphery or remembering they’re there.

Yesterday, Precious and I were at the shoe store and she was carrying my box of shoes out of the store for me. There was a little slope outside the store and Precious fell over backwards, with feet up in the air. What I didn’t realize is that when she had changed into her dress, she had taken off her underwear and she was bare-bottomed! Luckily her bum was pointing towards the wall and no one really saw that she wasn’t wearing any undies.

There was a group of young girls around 14 years-old sitting on a bench outside the shoe store and they giggled and pointed at my daughter when she fell. I felt both rage and embarrassment. I was angry at the girls for laughing at my daughter and embarrassed for my daughter.

After a minute, I realized that I shouldn’t have been embarrassed for Precious. Everybody falls sometimes! And my rage was unnecessary as they’re just girls. I do know this is something I’m going to have to learn to accept. I think it will be harder when it is her peers teasing her. The only saving grace is that Precious lacks the developmental ability to get embarrassed, for now, so it won’t bother her.

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