I also have CP and know how you feel about living with the condition. My CP was never brought up or discussed. I didn't know I had CP until I was 46. I'm not sure what input you've had from your family about what you have had to deal with over the years, but from what you say in your article it sounds as though you too have had very little. Often it's only when someone has something similar that they have to deal with, that we get the sympathy vote, but that doesn't replace our years of struggle or how they've dealt with us. I would either brush what they say off so as not to avoid conflict because of how you feel, or talk how you feel through with your family. It doesn't make what they've said right, it just makes it what it is. Families... we all have something that we have to deal with. Good luck.

sorry that should have to avoid conflict...

read to avoid conflict... !

Just tell them, you don't know how I feel. You don't understand. Be honest with them. They might not like it, but so what. That's you. No one can understands our bodies. Unless Somebody comes in and actually spends time with us, like my husband.

I hear Ya,,
I have mild cp to (ataxic cp) I also was born with it.
My mother tries to get on my level, and thinks she knows how I feel about things like stress, frustration........etc,
But, she doesn't.
I think all parent's think they know how we feel,
I understand it was hard to come to term's with, My child has physical or mental defect, That doesn't mean they know how we feel, cause they don't, They can't even begin to understand how we feel.