Scan barcode
A review by justgeekingby
We've Got This: essays by disabled parents by Eliza Hull
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
5.0
We’ve Got This is a much-needed selection of essays from disabled parents about parenting as disabled people. This was a book that was very relevant to me as someone who is one part of a disabled couple. As many of the authors mention there is hardly any information out there about disabled parenting, and the information you do come across is filled with the attitude that disabled parents either can’t parent for various reasons or they shouldn’t become parents because they are passing on their hereditary conditions. These ableist and eugenicist beliefs are not only ignorant, they’re spreading misinformation and have an extremely harmful effect on disabled people.
The essays in We’ve Got This are from disabled parents from a wide array of backgrounds, and situations. It is wonderfully intersectional and includes many different disabilities which I especially appreciated. I often find collections like this fail to comprehend just how diverse the disabled community is. That wasn’t the case here and Eliza Hull has done a fantastic job of curating this book. The essays themselves are brilliant, written from the heart and are very informative.
My one complaint is that I feel that the book would have benefited from content warnings at the start of each essay as some of them talk about some very difficult topics, and they appear without warning at times which I found quite uncomfortable. By that I’m referring to my own personal triggers because We’ve Got This does talk about a lot of uncomfortable situations and rightly so. I thought I was aware of some of the traumatic situations that disabled people dealt with regarding pregnancy, however, I now realise I was only just scratching the surface.
Despite being difficult to read at times We’ve Got This is a book that I’m going to be recommending to everyone, disabled and non-disabled people. I was asked by someone about how relevant this book is to people who aren’t parents or thinking about starting a family, and I personally think this book is relevant to everyone. As mentioned at the start of this review disabled parenting is an area that is extremely scrutinised by so many people many of who have never actually bothered to take the time to speak to or spend time with a disabled parent.
Parenting is terrifying for anyone, and being disabled adds so much more pressure because of the social and medical models of disability. The wealth of experiences, knowledge and sense of community that We’ve Got This offers is invaluable, offering advice and support for disabled people while shedding light on the ableist and eugenicist attitudes of medical, social and educational professionals.
My personal favourite essays were by Nina Tame who is always a joy to read, Lucy and James Catchpole who are both disabled but have different disabilities, and they talk about how that affected the way they were perceived as parents, and Jasper Peach who has chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia talking about parenting with those conditions. Those three were ones that resonated with me personally in some way, but I gained something from and every single one. This is a brilliant book that will be hard to read, but it’s a necessary read.
The essays in We’ve Got This are from disabled parents from a wide array of backgrounds, and situations. It is wonderfully intersectional and includes many different disabilities which I especially appreciated. I often find collections like this fail to comprehend just how diverse the disabled community is. That wasn’t the case here and Eliza Hull has done a fantastic job of curating this book. The essays themselves are brilliant, written from the heart and are very informative.
My one complaint is that I feel that the book would have benefited from content warnings at the start of each essay as some of them talk about some very difficult topics, and they appear without warning at times which I found quite uncomfortable. By that I’m referring to my own personal triggers because We’ve Got This does talk about a lot of uncomfortable situations and rightly so. I thought I was aware of some of the traumatic situations that disabled people dealt with regarding pregnancy, however, I now realise I was only just scratching the surface.
Despite being difficult to read at times We’ve Got This is a book that I’m going to be recommending to everyone, disabled and non-disabled people. I was asked by someone about how relevant this book is to people who aren’t parents or thinking about starting a family, and I personally think this book is relevant to everyone. As mentioned at the start of this review disabled parenting is an area that is extremely scrutinised by so many people many of who have never actually bothered to take the time to speak to or spend time with a disabled parent.
Parenting is terrifying for anyone, and being disabled adds so much more pressure because of the social and medical models of disability. The wealth of experiences, knowledge and sense of community that We’ve Got This offers is invaluable, offering advice and support for disabled people while shedding light on the ableist and eugenicist attitudes of medical, social and educational professionals.
My personal favourite essays were by Nina Tame who is always a joy to read, Lucy and James Catchpole who are both disabled but have different disabilities, and they talk about how that affected the way they were perceived as parents, and Jasper Peach who has chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia talking about parenting with those conditions. Those three were ones that resonated with me personally in some way, but I gained something from and every single one. This is a brilliant book that will be hard to read, but it’s a necessary read.
Content Warnings