Dad’s Viral Thread About Daughter With Down Syndrome Is Making The Internet Happy Cry

I’ve often heard pregnant people say that they don’t care about the gender of their babies, they just hope that they’ll be healthy and “normal.” It makes sense that people hope their babies will be neurotypical and not disabled in any way, just because people want their children to face as few obstacles as possible. But, as we all know, life isn’t like that—there are all kinds of different children and some of them happen to have Down Syndrome.

Children with Down Syndrome have a certain degree of learning disability and delayed development, but the extent varies greatly from child to child. They might not learn physical skills like walking and talking as quickly as children without the condition, but they do get there. It just tends to take longer.

But they are still children and as such, they experience all the joy and happiness that other kids do. Jason Kneen, an app developer and father of five, recently tweeted, as though a person were asking him a question, “My child has Down’s Syndrome, what should I expect?” His answer was a picture of his daughter Rosie just beaming from ear to ear and the words, “This. 100% this.”

Kneen followed that up with another tweet with more absolutely adorable pictures of Rosie.

His tweet went viral, and Kneen took the opportunity to speak a bit about what it had been like for him to be the parent of a child with Down Syndrome.

 

He wrote that it was a “shock” when she was born and that it was overwhelming to process.

But he soon realized that his child wasn’t that different from others.

Unfortunately, some children with DS are susceptible to respiratory problems and infections.

With each tweet, Kneen included another sweet picture of Rosie and the rest of his family.

People on the internet were clearly moved and responded by sending Kneen, Rosie, and the whole family lots of love. People who had family members with Down Syndrome sent pictures and stories of them thriving.

Okay, hands up who’s crying?

h/t: Someecards