Lives are being impacted, just outside my window...

As I walked by my window this morning, something caught my eye. Across the brush filled ravine, two young boys were walking to school (the younger boy appeared to be about 7 and the older boy 10). As I began to turn away, I noticed that the younger boy carried himself in a very unique fashion and frequently walked in circles staring at the ground below him. The older boy, I assume to be his older brother, was gesturing to a backpack lying on the ground and appeared to be asking the younger boy to come back and pick it up. The older boy gestured and solicited the younger boy to pickup the backpack several times with no avail. After a minute or so, the older boy picked up the backpack and started walking behind the younger boy.

They walked about ten feet before the younger boy walked up on top of a mound of dirt where he resumed walking in circles. The older boy stopped while the younger boy circled a few times and walked back down the dirt mound and over to the older boy. The younger boy began trying to get the backpack from the older boy and the older boys response caught me off guard. Instead of handing the younger boy the backpack, he kept pulling it away from him and to my surprise; he punched him in the stomach. Even more surprising was the younger boys reaction, he simply stomped his feet and continued walking.

At this point, the boys were leaving my line of sight and I had to finish getting ready for work. Of course I couldn't help but think about what I had just witnessed. It was apparent to me that the younger boy was most likely a special needs child; if not, a child having a severely bad morning. It made me wonder, what is life like for a sibling of a special needs child? Surely nobody could argue that his reactions were anything but acceptable, but can a seemingly 10 year old boy even know how to handle a young child of this nature and should he even have to? I don't live in a ritzy neighborhood, so I am assuming both parents work and have limited resources when it comes to the care of their youngest child.

I thought, surely with all the disabilities acts there must be some help for these people. But I recalled that just last week my husband mentioned reading an article in the local paper about a family we know who has a son with severe autism. The article was covering the upcoming cuts being made to the programs that help families with children who have disabilities. It's quite disheartening considering there is always someone at the top making more money than they really need to make, while those in need suffer. It's just not right!