I can't believe my child did ......

Listening to the radio this morning the conversations was "I turned my back for a moment and can't believe my child did___.  Many people called in sharing stories of things that their children have done.  The stories ranged from putting things up their nose, including a child that put magnets up their nose and needed removal with a super magnet, to sliding down the stairs and getting stuck in the drywall, to painting a sibling.  A lot of the stories were quite funny but relatively common and I was left thinking that some of my children make these children seem like amateurs.

It got me thinking about the differences between raising typical children and children with various special needs.  Over the years we have experienced many things when we have turned our back for a moment and as some of the children have aged the creativity has increased however the maturity hasn't necessarily kept pace. This becomes a problem when the children/teens are older but still need the supervision of an infant/toddler.  The supervision needs to be kept up like when they were infants/toddlers or even more so.  I know for us when we had infants/toddlers we could put them in a crib and expect them to stay there, also they required more sleep so naps also gave us a break.  With our teens needing this sort of supervision they no longer nap and we no longer have the ability to place them in a crib for their safety.  When the "overgrown toddler" is out in public people have certain expectations based on their size/age but frequently the child isn't able to meet these expectations.  As a parent you are often viewed as over protective especially if the child has an invisible disability.  A lot of supervision and advocating is necessary when you are raising children/teens with special needs and guaranteed you will have stories to tell when asked to complete the statement "I turned my back for a moment and I can't believe my child did____?