By Emily Werner

I was watching my son participate in “Safety Town,” a little community summer day camp for soon-to-be kindergarteners. I was partly there for my son, and partly because I so desperately needed to get out of the house! I had been in tears for days, not knowing what I was doing wrong. 

Next to me sat a first-grade teacher, who was a mom of one of the other children. We began to chat, as moms do, and when she asked me about my son, I told her about how he was so intense and sensitive, overreacting to everything, and how hard it was to figure out what he needed. I had just thrown out another pair of pajamas that he refused to wear, and was worn out from trying to get him to eat and play like “normal” boys. 

She encouraged me to read the book Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. She said it was about kids who are more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent, and energetic than other children. So I obtained a copy, and as I began reading, I felt like a light went on. “This is my son!” Then I realized that it was also me.