My son has Cystic Fibrosis and we have had social workers involved in our lives since he was born. They called this irresponsible parenting, yet they wanted me to prepare him for dying, I told them that was irresponsible advice. Told em we were all about livin' not dyin'. Never got along with the Social Workers. The docs said he wouldn't see 18 and he's 25 and fairly healthy. Motorcycles helped teach him to live and I mean that.

How many of the social workers have kids in the same situation as you and your son?
How many of the social workers have kids?
I would guess the answer would be none of them?

How many have university degrees? probably all of them?

Who has had the most fruitfull lives, you and your son or them?

Good luck to you and your son.
You have shown him more of life than all of them put together. Motorcycles tend to do that.

graeme

My Nephew was an "extreme Preemie" (born at 23 weeks, 1 pound and 9 ounces, 4 months in the NICU) and they were sending social-workers to the house regularly when he first came home.
A social worker told me that he was delayed because he did not "complete tasks", I put a basket full of clean laundry on the floor and he dutifully crawled over to it and emptied it onto the floor. I asked her "is that not a completed task?, he just was not interested in what you were doing", he's 13, goes to a regular school, gets decent grades, plays the Violin and is pretty-much a normal-Kid.

Those folks generally do not know YOUR KID, they only know what they learned from the book about the condition.

Congrats and keep doing what you are doing, it seems to be working-well.

Vince

I think the social workers were right, it is irresponsible to ride a Triumph, especially barefoot

Jean

One of my cousin's children has cystic fibrosis and although historically there has been a high mortality rate in young adulthood, treatment protocols in recent years seems to have negated this and patients are living longer and longer. So good luck to you and your son and here's hoping that he has many many years of motorcycling hooliganism to enjoy. I am however not convinced that smoking is the best thing for his condition, but who can tell a spirited 25 year old kid anything.

This is the picture I thought I was posting - that picture was me back in the early 70s! They called me irresponsible because I had him riding motorcycles before he learn to ride a bicycle! That's pretty embarassing!!!

One of my cousin's children has cystic fibrosis and although historically there has been a high mortality rate in young adulthood, treatment protocols in recent years seems to have negated this and patients are living longer and longer. So good luck to you and your son and here's hoping that he has many many years of motorcycling hooliganism to enjoy. I am however not convinced that smoking is the best thing for his condition, but who can tell a spirited 25 year old kid anything.

You are absolutely correct. They are living longer and his life expectancy is now mid 30s. Fortunately Jason never picked up most of Dad's bad habits, such as smoking!

That Triumph was the first bike I ever built from parts and pieces. It was a pre-unit with 72 top end and 5 speed. that was 1974. It also was the bike that my dog Buddy learned to ride on. He liked the fatbobs on the ole shovelhead Harley alot better. My wife can't quit laughing at the sideburns and the shirt I was wearing. Still don't know how I posted that one instead of Jason on his JR 50. And yes I know about the preview button and coulda swore I did check!!!

Still feeling a little foolish.

Mike

Wow, I thought it was Peter Fonda.
Keep doing what your doing Mike.

Thanks AC

Mike

Mike, Your son still has lots of time left and it looks like there are some very promising new treatments in the pipeline.

However, a Suzuki!! That is irresponsible!!

Well, he couldn't reach the pegs on the Norton so I had to do something! Besides, it was a frame-up restoration! And BTW it was a hot little 50. It sounded bad to the bone... for a chainsaw! I had it turning about 10-11 grand and the needle roller in the small end of the rod didn't like that. Was able to fit one from a Comet kart engine (I think) and was good to go. It would bring the front wheel off the ground when it came on the pipe! In his first race, when he smoked everybody to the first corner, the other Dad's realize that not only did it not sound stock, it didn't run that way either. I didn't know that "stock class" meant you had to leave the engine alone too, so we were disqualified! (I'm just a dumb Southern boy raised on moonshine and gear oil...what can I say?)

Mike

Mike, I can hear a Steve Earle song in this story somewhere. I'm sure the young lad is able to reach the pegs of the Norton now. Do you let him ride it?

Whoa...I have every album of Steve Earle's and most folks don't even know who he is. As for the Norton, I'm ashamed to say that the only thing running is my little Yamahammer dirty bike. Life, cancer, a round tuit, money (Jason's medications alone are about $11K a month and Ins only covers some of that! His therapy machine is $16k and they pay none of that!), etc, etc, etc. but if you guys will buy more parts and pay more money for 'em, I could have one running in no time!! Just kidding!! But if I did have one running then by all means he could ride it anywhere he wanted to go!

Mike

Mike, I can see I have impressed you with my Hillbilly credentials. Not bad for a British lad educated in China eh! They make moonshine here in Hong Kong too, using rice as the basic ingredient. Regarding my familiarity with Steve Earle, I used to play drums in a rock band and we did a couple of covers off 'Copperhead Road'. I thoroughly enjoyed his early stuff, although I'm not so fond of the later albums. However I must say that the album he did of Townes Van Zant's songs is marvelous. I suppose we have gone off topic a bit, although I believe Steve Earle was and perhaps still is a keen motorcyclist.

What do you have to do to your Commandos to get one on the road?

From one irresponsible dad with special needs kid(s) to another: Keep doing what you're doing.