As a parent, it's my job to take care of my daughter, to teach her right from wrong, help her with homework and generally get her ready for life on her own. When I talk to other parents, parents of children who don't have diabetes, I always get the same thing: That sympathetic little moue and a pitying "Oh, it must be so hard on you. I don't know how you can check her sugar/give her shots/change her infusion site. I could never do that."

Hard on ME? Hard on ME??! What about my daughter? How about taking a second to think about how this disease is going to impact her life? Yes, it's challenging raising a child with diabetes, but she's my CHILD. Of course I can check her sugar, give her shots and change her infusion sites and I do it willingly because, you idiot, if I didn't, she'd be DEAD.

I am not a martyr and I'm not going to pretend that raising a child with a chronic illness is a walk in the park - it isn't. But it's my job and one that I'm pretty good at, most of the time. I falter, I make mistakes, just like any parent does, but I don't sit on my sizable butt and complain about how difficult MY life is because my DAUGHTER has diabetes.

My life is what it is. But her life is still before her, full of possibilities, and it's my goal to make sure that she is there to live her life, to the fullest extent.

Frankly, I find it more challenging being the mother of two toddlers than I do parenting a child with diabetes. Toddlers baffle me. Diabetes, not so much.