Today was a Bad day with a capital B.
Why?
Well, on P.E. days, all the other kids would change in the classroom while Roman went to the toilets to change, but after years of this routine, someone had gotten curious and followed him.
For as long as Roman could remember, he’d been in diapers. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t tell when he needed the bathroom. There had been many trips to the doctors, to therapists, even to church, all made with the hope that he’d get better. Unfortunately, nothing had worked
So, by the time Roman finished changing into his sports clothes, all of his classmates knew his secret. He’d walked back into class to stares, grins, and whispers.
I heard his diapers are proper baby ones, with dumb princesses on them.
No way! Roman? Really?
Explains why he’s so bad at math then, if he’s secretly a big baby!
He definitely wasn’t crying, because no matter what those dumb kids said, he wasn’t a baby.
Instead, Roman ran out the classroom, out the school, and onto the field. He ran until he reached the green fence that ran around the school to make sure no one was early. There, he dropped his bag on the floor and quickly followed it, choosing to curl up on the ground and scream.
Roman loved screaming. Just like he knew his eyes were brown, and that he had ten toes, he knew his lungs were made to scream. So he laid there on the muddy grass, hugging his Mickey Mouse backpack to his chest, and screamed as loud as he could.
It didn’t take long for someone to come grab him. While he hadn’t run this far in a long time, Roman had a habit of bolting whenever he got upset. He did the same at home, so much so that
whenever the toddler received a new book, Logan would do whatever he could to please Roman in order to make sure he’d have peace and quiet.
“Roman, sweetie, we’ve called your dad, and he’s come to pick you up.” Mrs Erdem said, her face all screwed up.
The adults in the office took turns being the one to come calm him down, and today was his least favorite. Mrs Erdem was like a mouse, with big ears and a quiet voice. She never treated Roman as nicely as the other teachers. Even though she used nice names, she always looked at him the way he looked at math: a big, useless problem that he didn’t want to solve.
“FINE!” Roman replied, getting up and glaring at her.
She glared right back at him.
“Don’t you yell at me, young man. If you didn’t want your little friends to tease you, you shouldn’t act so immature.” Mrs Erdem snapped, grabbing his wrist and dragging him across the field.
Roman whined and hissed as they walked to the front office, failing to pull his arm out of her grip. Even when he asked quietly, she wouldn’t let go, no matter how much he insisted that she was-
“-hurting him! Let go of my son, you hag!” Remus yelled, pushing past the security and snatching Roman away from her. “Fuck, take deep breaths, Little Prince. Daddy’s here now, it’s okay.”
Roman just shook his head, his bottom lip trembling.
“No, Daddy, it’s not. Everyone knows my secret, and they were so mean, and Mrs Erdem said it was my fault, and, and-” It was like the words were erupting from his throat without warning, just spewing out no matter how much Roman wanted to keep them inside.
His dad pulled him into a hug, and gently stroked the back of his head, making Roman melt. His dads both seemed to have magic powers, because their hugs always made him feel better, even if it was only a little bit.
“Don’t you listen to her, or those kids. There is nothing wrong with you, Roman. Come on, let's take you home,” He whispered, shooting a glare at the woman over his son's head, “I think it’s time for some ice cream.”
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Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".
Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"
And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".
Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.
At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.
So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!
Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!
Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!
Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.
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