A virtual community for people who have Kids Like Mine in their lives.

Although my kids are both highly gifted, neither of them wishes to go to college. They have been homeschooled for over 8 years and wish to start their own company. I seem to no longer really fit in on most of the lists I joined to support my homeschooling efforts, where many kids of similar ages are going on to college. My hope is that this list will be a better forum for talking about the kinds of issues I have as a parent of older teens who seem to not fit in any of the categories of other lists. I hope others will find some value in it as well. (Parents of younger kids certainly are welcome.)

To quote that great modern philosopher Madonna, "I just don't like labels. They are too limiting. And I don't want to be limited." However, when total strangers who don't know anything about my kids go looking for information, labels can be helpful shorthand. Some of the labels one or both of my kids qualify for include: gifted, asperger's syndrome, faceblind, color blind, dysgraphia, sensory issues, homeschooled and atypical cystic fibrosis (CF).

If your kids have any of the above issues or other related issues (such as other health problems or other autism spectrum disorders) and you feel this is of interest to you, we would love to have you join us. My kids are what a friend calls "out of the box gifted" or "nonstandard gifted". If that resonates with you, I hope you will also feel comfortable here.

The focus is on raising children to be whole, happy, functional adults in spite of being born with "issues". I personally believe no one comes into this world without issues. Having a formal diagnosis does not make one more imperfect but it does make it easier for people to pigeon-hole you in a fashion that is often life-diminishing instead of life-enhancing. We all have limitations. I do not call those limitations "being handicapped". I call that being human.