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Parents with physical disability

By Raising Children Network
 
 

About one-fifth of Australians have a disability. For those who are parents, it is a lack of suitable services, rather than their disability, which can make it hard to cope. Read one parent's story, and learn more about the challenges facing parents with a disability all over Australia.

Share your ideas and experiences with other parents with a disability in our discussion forums.

Profile

Anita and Barry are parents of adult children now aged 21, 25 and 28.
 
Anita
‘I have been in a wheelchair since I had a car accident when I was 16. I had always wanted to be a mother and a year after I got married, I had my first son.
 
‘When the children were young I got by through designing and modifying things to suit my needs. When they were babies I had them on a sheepskin with two wooden handles so I could pick them up. When they started crawling they’d wear a little harness or I’d dress them in overalls. I had a change table and bassinette modified to suit my chair, and used a tubby bath that supported the babies well.
 
‘The hardest part when the children were young was the isolation. We were living in a semi-rural area and I was very much confined to the house while my husband worked. Getting outside was difficult, so I couldn’t play with the children in the garden as much. I had to rely on my mum a bit for that. Even though I drive, getting to the shops and leaving the house is quite an ordeal when you’ve got to put the kids in the car and put your chair in. So I tended to stay at home and because of that I had a really solid routine. I think that helped a lot. But it was tiring. Lifting nappy buckets and all those things are very tiring when you are in a wheelchair.
 
‘But it wasn’t just physical isolation. I felt a lot of frustration and could get depressed when I just couldn’t do the things I wanted to do because I was so isolated and tired. I was lucky because I had a supportive husband and when we went out he had to change the children because I didn’t have the table. But this was frustrating too.
 
‘My approach has always been that I’m a mother before I’m a person with a disability. I tried really hard to be part of the children’s lives. I went on the kindergarten committee to make the kindergarten wheelchair accessible and I did fruit duty and reading. I’ve done spinal injury awareness talks at the children’s schools and been as much a part of my children’s recreational activities as I could – calisthenics committee and racing around the three phases of dressage, show jumping and cross-country in my three-wheel motorbike. Now one son is an Olympic athlete and my daughter is getting there in equestrian.’

At a glance

  • Around 20% of Australians have a disability of some kind. 
  • The 2003 Australian Bureau of Statistics publication Disability, Ageing and Carers: Summary of Findings found that 5.9% of people had a profound or severe level of core activity limitation (that is, they needed help with one or more self-care, mobility or communication activities).
  • People with a disability are less likely to have completed a higher educational qualification than those without a disability. In 2003, one in five people aged 15 to 64 who had no disability had completed a bachelor degree or higher, compared to one in eight people with a disability.

The challenges

Parents with a physical disability are one group that still experiences a fairly high level of prejudice. Some people believe that people with a disability won’t make good parents or that their children will be subject to a substandard family environment and level of parenting. For many years this has stopped parents from accessing support services because they are frightened that their children will be removed or that their ability to be a good parent will be questioned.

However, there is no evidence to support the view that having a physical disability will result in a reduced ability to parent.

In fact studies have indicated that, in most cases, children can develop skills and qualities that are absent in other children. These may come from developing a deeper understanding of difficulties and hardship, learning to give and take pleasure in helping with family chores and respecting and understanding responsibility. Because of their disability and the way a family adapts, parents with a disability can actually raise children who have a better insight into life and caring than many other children of the same age.

Social disadvantages
In the past, people have believed that having a disability makes it hard to get by in society: it’s difficult to get an education, a job or have a family. The opposite view sees society failing to meet the needs of people with a disability. These needs include the desire and the right to have a family. Society fails people with a disability by not providing the right kinds of services and facilities within the community to make these goals achievable.

Lack of services make it hard for disabled parents to cope. Typically parents undue hardship because:

  • there is not enough respite or home help and a lack of support services within the community to meet their day-to-day needs
  • people working in the care sector don’t understand the needs of disabled parents
  • family relationships are interrupted when children are removed or cared for by others when their parents are hospitalised, ill or having difficulty.

Associated problems
Many people with moderate or severe disabilities have trouble holding down a job or simply getting through day-to-day activities, and that can make being a parent even more difficult. High rates of unemployment and poverty and social isolation – rather than the disability itself – lead to difficulties with child rearing. These strains can also cause tension between parents.

Care and discipline
Some of the challenges parents may face in hands-on child rearing are related to their physical abilities. If a parent is restricted in movement in the upper body, they may have difficulty holding a child unaided or carrying out general care duties such as feeding and cleaning. If a parent is in a wheelchair, they may be limited in the amount of toddler chasing or tantrum soothing they can perform. Some parents’ energy levels are affected, making the already exhausting job of child rearing even more tiring.

To compensate, many parents with a physical disability rely more heavily on verbal communication. This communication and instruction to children can start at an early age. Children understand that they can learn to feel safe if they listen to their parent and do what they say. As children grow older, reasoning and explanation become the main tools for discipline.

Children in a caring role
Some people worry that children take on too much responsibility in physically caring for their parent. This has long been assumed to have a bad influence on the way a child is reared as it may deny a child the regular experiences of childhood.

Many studies show that children of disabled parents are not disadvantaged by helping to care for their parents. In fact, it is suggested that learning about responsibility, care and contribution helps with the development of good self-esteem because children experience a sense of worth from their role. When children have too much responsibility it is usually because the family is not properly supported by community services.

For further help

 
  • Last updated21-08-2008
  • Last reviewed15-05-2006
  • References

    Blackford, K. (1999). A Child’ s Growing Up with a Parent Who Has Multiple Sclerosis: theories and experiences. Disability & Society, 14 (5), 673-678.

    Kelley, S.D.M., & Sikka, A. (1997). A review of research on parental disability: Implications for research and counselling practice. Rehabilitation Counselling Bulletin, 41(2).

    Kirshbaum, M., &  Olkin, R. (2002). Parents with Physical, Systemic, or Visual Disabilities. Sexuality and Disability, 20(1).

    Meadow-Orlans, K.P. (2002). Parenting with a sensory or physical disability. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 3, Being and becoming a parent (2nd ed., pp.317 – 338). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Prilleltensky, O. (2004). My child is not my carer: mothers with physical disabilities and the well-being of children. Disability & Society, 19(3).