Never Underestimate the Power of Parents!

By: Meredith Roman Pizzi, MT-BC

Parents are so powerful and influential.

Parents of all ages with children of all ages and all abilities can do incredible things! Last month I shared information about Kate’s Voice, a grant program that was founded by parent, Laura Rutherford.

This month, I want to share two more resources that were also started by a parent!

Amber Bobnar became a parent in 2005. At the time, she was working professionally for a small web publishing company. Over time, her son Ivan’s special needs became more obvious and she made the decision to quit her job to devote her time to her son and his care. As any parent does, Amber began learning more and more from books, therapists, and her work as a mom. As she cared for her son Ivan, she realized that there were very few sites out there that focused on the challenges of raising babies who are blind and have multiple disabilities. And like other great parents, she didn’t stop there. She knew that using her web experience she could share all of her information with others, and in 2006, she founded WonderBaby.org.

She started WonderBaby.org as a way to share with others what she learned about playing with and teaching a blind, disabled baby.

Her goal was to create a database of articles written by parents of blind children. There are over 100 articles by parent who share real life advice and real life experiences. There are no doctors or therapists on this website!

If you have an idea or article, images and video to share, please let her know! She’ll post your article along with a picture of you and your child.

As Ivan grew, so did his interests. Music, and especially hearing live performances, became a powerful experience that he and his mom enjoyed. As she gathered more information about the local music scene, she decided it was important to share that information online so she was inspired to create BostonChildrensMusic. Boston Children’s Music is another great parenting resource that you can harvest and reap the rewards.  On this website, you’ll find upcoming music events for children in the Boston area, CD Reviews, interviews with children’s musicians and a section called Music 101 with articles about how music can affect children’s development.  You can even read an article I wrote about the importance of repetition when making music with young children.  Read the article here.

These two great community sites were created because of the ideas of one parent. You can make a difference in the life of your child, children and perhaps in the lives of others!

Be inspired.

Parents do make a difference!