I've been watching some of the older videos. Honestly, no matter how much fame or YouTube money these people get, I can't help feeling sorry for them. I just can't. Life with Abbie looks MISERABLE. The constant yelling, the potty problems, night time problems, the nose picking ... no amount of money in the world would make me feel okay about living with a child like that. I'm sorry if this offends anyone, I truly am, but it looks awful.
I can't blame Priscilla for wanting to do her own thing. Her weight loss, MLM bullshit, and ridiculous "cooking channel" are completely understandable to me. She has spent her adult life as the fat, depressed mother of a severely disabled child who, frankly, seems hard to love, let alone live with and care for. That and her shitty husband ... sometimes I think fine, let the woman have something that's just hers! Her only true joy in life all these years has probably been Isaiah (thank god for him).
I wish I didn't think this way about Abbie. She's a complete innocent here. I wish I thought she was an angel, or she is part of "God's plan," or she brings joy and meaning to their lives, and so on. Maybe she does, to the family and for other people who comment on their vids. Better people than I, for sure. I just see her as a burden and source of great disappointment. I know, I know, "welcome to Holland," etc. etc. I think this is why, while i do criticize the Maass family a lot, I can't help but feel for them.
I completely understand where you are coming from. I am a Mom of 4 Special Needs children myself (all on the Autism Spectrum, in some fashion)... I have people tell me daily “I don’t know how you do it” or “I would have placed my child into an institution.” The last comment was hard and when my youngest was little.
I like to think that my youngest child was about where Abbie was, when she was around 4-6 years old. The difference, we had early intervention started at 2 years old. The child in question was working bi-weekly with Speech and Occupational Therapist, then weekly with physical therapist. Of course, we had the normal issues with preschools refusing to take the child’s enrollment or after a year, denying re-enrollment due to a laundry list (ages 2-3-4). Then went on to special preschools at almost age 5 and into the world of special education with afternoon private therapies (yes, I sat 4-5 nights a week, from an hour to 4 hours straight, in a therapist office afterschool, so the kids could get their therapies and we followed up on all homework from school and the therapist).
Saying this, with ALL this backing, my child is now mainstreamed in school with limited help and pull outs for reading. The child isn’t potty trained but we are almost there. The child has plenty of celebrations and we will accomplish one goal at a time...
Anyways, where was I going, that is right, I really feel that A & P let down Abbie, especially in those early years. Those days she came off the bus, should have had some homework and afternoon therapies attached to them. What they didn’t need was to be sat back into a room, with a television and bed and parents that basically ignored her, while they ran their shop...
Now, I feel they are reaping what they sow. I don’t agree though that they should be living the high life, just because they have a child that makes their life more difficult.. Yes, it sucks but they really have a direct way of not helping Abbie as much as they could have and even to this day, continually ignore her or set her up for failure, which is totally the incorrect way to parent a special needs child..
We don’t live rich. I can’t remember the last time we took a vacation (I just remember I don’t want to do it again and it wasn’t a vacation). We don’t have fancy vehicles, our trusty van gets us where we need (though it doesn’t hold everyone and the wheelchair needed). We don’t have a fancy house (we hope to purchase one, one day but for now live in an apartment).. We definitely don’t get nights out, tickets to football games, etc.. Every single penny is budgeted and accounted for and there are no savings. We have poured everything into our kids and when I die, I can say, I did everything that I could possibly do for my children..
Cilla as the next “real life mom boss”
