Somewhere between caring for everyone else and trying to create the “perfect” summer, I lost sight of myself. This mid-summer check-in is an honest reflection on forgotten promises—and a reminder that it’s not too late to begin again.

For many families, summer means fun and freedom. For families of children with disabilities, it often means months of searching for programs where their child will be understood, supported, and included. In this personal reflection, Inclusive Together founder Lauren Tarzia shares the heartbreak of exclusion, the challenges families face, and why true inclusion requires more than good intentions—it requires action, understanding, and commitment.

Spring is the season of change. A shift from cold, heavy days into something warmer and lighter. And it reminds me of a time when I realized that everything I thought I knew about parenting wasn’t working for my child.

It started with a single repeated phrase—and a quiet fear I couldn’t ignore. As a speech-language pathologist, I recognized the signs in my son, but as his mother, I wasn’t ready to accept them. I tried to fix, redirect, and reshape him. Nothing worked. It wasn’t until I stopped trying to change him that I finally saw him—and everything changed.