Hear What I Am Doing

HEAR WHAT I AM DOING


Please, mom,
hear what I am doing;
see what I am saying.
The world is a crazy, confusing, scary place for me.
I can’t do the things other kids do—my body doesn’t work right.

But inside, I’m just like other kids—I need to be loved and appreciated;

I need to belong, to fit in;

I need to contribute, to be useful;

I need to be heard and understood;

I desperately want you to be proud of me.

I want to tell you my needs, my feelings, my thoughts, but they get

trapped inside me because I can't get my mouth to say the words

There gets so much piled up inside me
that sometimes it just blows up everywhere
And I know you're disappointed in me
and you get angry at me
And somehow its all my fault.
My actions speak so loudly, you can’t see what I am saying.
Yet, my actions are my saying.
My body says what my mouth can't.
I act out my feelings,
but often the acting out is such a problem that my feelings go unnoticed.
But I have no other way of telling you my feelings.

I want to cooperate, to succeed, to contribute, to feel good about
myself, but to do that I must be heard.

Please, mom, hear what I am doing;

see what I am saying.

Author: Carolyn Hunsinger
Reprinted by permissionof the author