Since my son was a baby, someone from the county has come out to work with us on his needs. As an infant, he got in-home occupational and physical therapy. When he got a little older, he attended a preschool for special needs children and when he neared school-age, we got OT and behavioral therapy ala carte while the county paid the bills.

Now that my boy attends a typical school and is functioning with mild delays, we don’t use the county funding much, but once a year his case manager still has to make an appearance at our house to go over his status. She visited us last week.

For the first 30 minutes she asked me questions about my son’s health and hospitalizations. Then she started asking him the questions.

She inquired about his age, what chores he does around the house and the extra-curricular activities in which he’s involved. She asked him if he can still dress himself, if he has a problem turning on the water when he showers and then…she asked him if he’s shaving yet.

This is a valid question.

Despite being 10 years old and only 48 pounds, my son is kind of hairy. You can see the faintest hint of a mustache above his upper lip and I admit to taming his unibrow. I blame our Lebanese genes.

Still,  I think his case manager was taken off-guard when he replied, “No, I don’t shave yet. But, do you want to see my hairy back?”

Unfortunately for us, the county draws the line at paying for wax jobs.

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