Parenting

A Sneak Peek Inside A Special Needs Mom's Purse

It’s very entertaining to sit on my living room floor at night and clean out my purse.  I never really know what I’m going to find in there, and I always find something that I had thought lost. It’s even more entertaining when my purse accidentally gets dumped out in public, which happens rather often.  Inevitably, the contents of my purse mark me as the mother of a child with special needs.  It’s better to laugh about it than to get upset - but I admit it’s a little embarrassing to have the following items scattered on the sidewalk in front of strangers:

Here is what is in my purse:

1. 3 ballpoint pens, 6 crayons and 2 pencils
2. Epi Pen Junior and a bottle of liquid Benadryl in a ziploc bag
3. A green Hot Wheels monster truck and a green Hot Wheels Lamborghini
4. 12 tickets to the PTA quilt raffle
5. A half-finished math puzzle page and craft project
6. Appointment cards from 7 different doctors and therapists
7. A 2-year calendar stuffed with business cards from more doctors and a Friendship Circle schedule
8. A box of raisins, a nut-free granola bar, 2 cinnamon Metamucil cookies and 3 ziploc bags of sunflower seeds
9. A heavily worn prayer book
10. 2 hair bands, a hair clip, 3 barrettes and a pony tail holder - my hair keeps getting pulled loose by little hands!
11. A used fork
12. A tiny bottle of Be Calm essential oil blend (chamomile, lavender and ylang ylang)
13. A vibrating hand-held massager
14. A pine cone - it was so pretty, we had to bring it home
15. A packet of tissues, a packet of wet wipes and a ziploc bag of feminine hygiene products
16. 17 receipts from stores and 2 receipts from doctor's offices
17. Coupons for the vitamin store
18. My son’s prescription for new eyeglasses that I haven’t had time to order
19. Red spiral notebook for questions and ideas, stuffed with flyers from various events and random photos
20. 3 sets of sunglasses and 3 pairs of gloves in small, medium and large
21. Chewed-up gum wrapped in tissue - my son asked his friend to spit it out because the smell was making him gag - we were sitting close together and there was no trash can nearby, so I stashed it in my purse!
22. “The No-Cry Discipline Solution” by Elizabeth Pantley - I forgot to return it to the library today
23. 2 bills that I forgot to mail yesterday
24. Lip balm with the label completely peeled off
25. And there at the bottom: my wallet, cell phone and keys

Now That My Purse Is Empty.... what's in your bag?