Child's play

By Mariana Conde

When I was a kid I used to play "cops and robbers". It was exciting to plan strategies with your team, to hide, to ally, to have the secret whistle to warn that the others were coming. The first time I played it, I was about five years old, it was hard for me to understand that, already identified with the cops, it was my turn to become a thief. An inner feeling of loyalty was uncomfortable with this change of side and "I screwed up and we lost the game".

When I grew up I played at being a mother. They were months of vibrant waiting, at times of euphoria, of learning through friends, relatives, books, about what was coming. A home test was enough to automatically join the motherhood clan and start training myself for that role. It was hard for me to assimilate later, already identified with the regular ones, that it was my turn to become "special". All my previous frame of reference would not serve me, I needed to learn a different one. 

A couple of days ago I was pleased to learn that, in one of those massive women's groups on social networks, there was a subgroup on inclusion. Apparently, it was set up as a result of inquiries from some moms about schools that would admit their children with some kind of permanent condition or disability.