By Soania Mathur

Time to tell the kids… As I laid down with my youngest daughter tonight, as I usually do while she drifts off to sleep, she looked at me and asked in a tired but inquisitive voice, “Were you born with Parkinson’s”. “Well, it’s a little complicated…” I began. This is just one of many questions I’ve fielded from my girls over the years. “Does your medicine make you feel better?” “How can you swallow so many pills?” “Mama, why are you limping? Did you hurt your foot? ” “Why can’t they find something to make you better?” And my favorite “If I hold your hand forever, will it stop shaking?”

I still marvel at the matter-of-fact nature of the conversations we have about Parkinson’s and the comfortable manner in which our girls discuss this disease. It’s exactly the way I had hoped my Parkinson’s would be perceived by my daughters – as a part of life’s challenges that can be dealt with, not as a frightening life stressor. Children these days are having enough difficulty navigating the world, dealing with school, peer groups, hormones and so on and the last thing I ever wanted was to add to their burden.

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