A Day In The Life W/ a Person With Dwarfsim

Hey guys, this is Angela Singletary and I have achondroplasia dwarfism and I am so excited to show you guys a day in my life. Come on in y'all. One of the most common questions I get is, oh do you have your whole house set up just for you? Is everything down low? And the answer is no. Some people do but I choose not to and it's intentional because I want my kids to be able to understand how to adapt, how to be resourceful. So you know we have the stools in here which is is definitely an accommodation and it's an important one. We are lucky enough to have front loading washer and dryer. Using a top loading washer is a challenge, not impossible, but you know you have to get used to standing on your head a little bit. So we're really grateful to have this washer and dryer. It's still a challenge at times and I do get my tall son to do most of the laundry but I'm going to show you guys what it's like for me to do laundry. So this three-step ladder is necessary to be able to reach up there and this is the laundry basket. So we will climb on up and we will take things out and hope they land in the basket. Then we get to take these clothes and shoot them into the dryer. Sometimes it lands, sometimes it doesn't. You know we don't have a ton of accommodations. It's a normal fridge, it's a normal stove, it's a normal freezer. I mean obviously it's above my head. There's our little friend and so but you know step up and we even have a ton of crap on top of our fridge so that you know because we need storage. So and that's just another step up. So the bathroom would really be the last place in our in our small house that has any kind of accommodations and really even those accommodations are very simple. We have a light switch pole and really this is not just like an LP thing right like a kid who's needing to be able to reach the bathroom. Our bedroom light switch would need that but yeah that's really you know kind of most of what the accommodations are in our house. Not very many tons of stools and just little things here and there so that we can make our life a little bit easier. Here let me show them what you what you got going on in here. So in here are some extensions for pedals. They just simply latch on to the existing pedal and it just gives her the ability to push the gas and brake. So really that's that's it you know there's not a whole lot of accommodations. I'll show you what we do in the trunk. Hold on one more go. There we go. So we are going to our local neighborhood market Walmart. We do love this store. Being a little person in a smaller town means that everybody knows you and that doesn't necessarily mean that you know everybody. So you know it's likely that we will see somebody that will say hi how are you. We are a friendly community just in general so that's another thing. But you know we might also encounter a little bit of ignorance. That's certainly something that happens. It could be pointing, laughing, trying to take a picture. It could be staring or you know any of those kinds of things. It doesn't always happen but it can. So you know we shall see what happens in here. So things like this have to go down here. Now mind you when I had two babies under three I had a carriage in here and a baby in here and so I was that was always fun having to talk to people about that. I didn't put all the way down. If we put it in here we wouldn't be able to reach it. So I guess the people behind us just took a picture of us which is fantastic to catch on film. So a lot of times there's things we can't reach and if there's nobody around to help then we just have to do it ourselves. So it's really quite simple. Just climb on up and get it down. Also you can sometimes use things to get things. So you could use something like this and knock it down like that. So you really hone your catching skills with these kinds of things. So the tricks of the trade don't exactly come natural. They don't come easy but when you have an LP mom it's a lot easier because you just simply watch what she does and then you end up doing it yourself. So without having an electronic back door you have to have something to be able to get the door down and sometimes it takes more than one go but sometimes we're lucky and it goes out all at once. When I was little, I or younger, I feel like I kind of went into the stores with like blinders on and didn't really pay attention to everybody else because then I don't have to worry about it. Right. But I do know, I know that daddy was very forward about you know things you know take a picture last longer was his favorite phrase but and you were you know you would always correct people and such but tell me a little bit about how you felt when we would go to the grocery store and how you navigated different things from your experiences as an LP you know because an average high purse mom doesn't have that first-hand experience and so you do. So how do you pull from that? How did you feel like at the grocery store? You mean like when you walk in you have your child with you? Yeah. Yeah. I would, I usually try to keep talking with you. Yeah. That way you know especially if somebody was you know being you know an adult mainly was pointing and you know trying to show everybody hey look, hey look. Yeah. You know I would try to talk with you and you know describe but also tell you you know that they don't understand. Oh yeah. That they grew up you know that they never had seen somebody that looked like us and that they had grown up being different. Yeah. They didn't know, didn't realize that they were doing that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I do remember that. I do remember that. You know it's, it is interesting being an LP, raising LPs because we don't, I don't want to over inform them because I don't want to put fear or nervousness in them. Oh no, not at all. But we do want to protect them and because we know we try to prepare so there seems like there's that fine line. Right, right. So what would you, your advice be to either an LP mom or or an average height mom raising an LP kid? You know you have way more experience than I do and you're you know you're just as hands-on with them too so what would you say to them? I would say you know raise them like you would any other child. Make sure that you know you socialize. Yeah. Get out and about and you and you don't say oh just because you're small you know you can't do this. Don't let them try it. Yeah. You know always, always, always let them try it because I really, you know honey my mom was average height and I'll never forget I didn't realize that I was as short as I was until I was like six or seven. Yeah. You know because. What made you realize that? Me and a friend of mine were cutting up and we were talking about robbing a bank and mom goes well yeah like I wouldn't notice you when you're robbing the bank and then I thought oh okay yeah I guess you know you would and that's when it really you know and and I talked with some people about that and and I realized it's because that she raised me just like she did my brothers. You know we get out there and do everything the same thing. Yeah. And you know get let them get out there and play with the kids and have a good time. Words can't explain how proud I am of you baby. You have just you you superseded what I thought you would be. I knew you would be awesome because I mean I can remember when you and I would cut up being young and you were little and people just were amazed by you and and you just have come to become this woman and this mom. That is awesome. You've raised your kids. We each learned from our parents and you learned what not to do for me. And they'll learn what not to do for me. And so and then they're awesome and you're you're I mean I love it when I see your friends with you and they just beam whenever they see you and they just praise you and they're always telling me how proud they are of you being your friend and I am so proud of being your mom and people tell me you know oh I saw Angie the other day. Well I am this way because of you so thank you. Thank you. I love you so much.