When family members or friends bragged about their kid's sports accomplishments, I talked about what my son was learning at home and what he was doing in musical theater.
This has been a really hard year for my son because a mild physical disability got worse. He had to quit musical theater because of the pain. He had so many medical appointments and is scheduled for surgery and we just could not focus on academics because of the anxiety over all of this, so we have been unschooling this year. Instead of being supportive, family members are talking about the sports accomplishments in front of my son who they know has been told he has to limit physical activities the rest of his life. They tell us how their kids are doing both the sports and making A's and then they ask what my child is doing. We occasionally see people we knew when my son was in scouts. He had to quit that too because of the disability. They don't know what to say to us.
I guess we don't have any real friends and I will stay away from my extended family for my mental health, so I guess I don't have this problem now.
