It’s September and that means one thing – CMT Awareness Month. During the month of September I will be using my blog to play a part in raising Awareness with an “alphabet challenge” blogging a letter / key word almost every day. Today is the letter C = clumsy. I hope my month of blogging will help you to learn more about CMT – the most common but least well known hereditary nerve disorder. And I hope this will also help to raise funds for the Charcot Marie Tooth Association to support its efforts to find a treatment for CMT. You can join me in learning more about CMT by clicking onto www.cmtausa.org and of course a donation would be wonderful too!
Today my post is a plea. Please don’t call people clumsy. Especially children.
People with CMT are often called clumsy. We can trip over air, fall over our own feet. It is just one of our “things” and is also one of the early signs of CMT.
When a child is called or labelled clumsy, it damages self belief. Without self belief, a “why should I bother ” thought process can happen, rather than a “I can do it” attitude. From the get-go, a child is not being given the best chance to become the best that they can be.
I know this. I was called clumsy. And it took me a very long time to learn to feel comfortable in my own skin, to feel self assured.
As a society we need to stop calling our kids clumsy. We need to stop doctors, teachers and people in positions of authority from making this type of comment, from dishing out this kind of label. One off the cuff remark can take a long time to reverse.
And it is not just kids. When it comes to getting active and healthy, being labelled clumsy can easily send a person down “why bother street”—thoughtless labels can be demotivating, and discourage people from reaching toward their goals. And god knows in our society we need more people to reach for that active healthy living goal…
We should set each other up to succeed and to aspire to greatness – not kindle inner demons that need to be slain before we can start the journey toward our potential.
Just say no to “clumsy”.
It’s CMT Awareness Month. Today’s post was brought to you by the letter “C” – clumsy. You can learn more about CMT and donate to support the self for a treatment for this at present incurable progressive degenerative nerve disease at www.cmtausa.org. Thank you.