Damned if I do, damned if I don’t — Contemplating TrialNet

About a month ago, I put out a call to other D-parents who may also confess to living vicariously though their non-D kids. A year ago, I confessed how scared I was of passing down the diabetes gene to my kids (I know … there is no diabetes gene … that we know of).

What’s a parent to do? Here’s another call out to D-parents to ask for your suggestions.

I could live with the understanding that my kids are more “at risk” (God, how I hate those words) for diabetes than their friends. I could hope and wish that they don’t get it, but that would be like building an ornate sandcastle ahead of a giant wave — a pointless waste of effort.

I could bury my head in the sand, ashamed that I worry about a mere possibility, while so many other parents handle the reality of having kids with diabetes — and they do it with an abundance of grace and elegance and patience. I could be a hypocrite, preaching that “it’s only diabetes and it’s not that bad…”, while quietly whispering to myself …as long as it doesn’t happen to my own kids.

I feel ashamed and embarrassed and hypocritical by writing those thoughts I just enunciated in the last paragraph.