It is with some trepidation that I launch this website and this blog. Can't shake the feeling that I don't know what I'm doing. However - that - don't-know-what-I'm-doing feeling was there when I started another of my long-standing blogs: A Parent's Guide to the Early Years Foundation Stage- and two years on, that particular blog has formed part of a soon-to-be-published book. So I'm going with the feeling.

This blog and the site is called M.S. in the family. Multiple Sclerosis in the family. My reasons for writing it are many. Firstly, a survival tactic. Breaking a silence and breaking out of a sense of isolation. I'm a reluctant caregiver and I'm not fond of many of the extra tasks I now need to do. I never asked for the job after all. My Other Half was diagnosed with M.S. around six years ago after the birth of our first child. I'd been 49 hours in labour and the winter following his diagnosis was very dark indeed.

Nearly six years on - and as a mother I'm confronted on a daily basis with playing a pivotal role in helping my daughter navigate her way through the jungle that is the English Coalition Government's so-called welfare reform policy. Disability Rights. Carers/caregivers rights. Or none?

So this site and this blog is not simply self-referential. I'm a political animal. There's that trepidation again. I've no way of knowing if this online diary will tell the story of a family breakdown. I hope it won't. But there is little doubt that our present government is making life more difficult for people with disabilities and their families.

So in the writing of this blog - we will need to ask ethical questions. I've noticed how little information is out there for the children of parents with Multiple Sclerosis. I hope this blog will change some of that and bring people together.