The term Blue Wristband Parent grew out of my observations about parents while my son has been a patient at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania. Each time Shawn was discharged, I would write a list of thoughts that I had about or during our stay. Following our third admission, the weekend of the Pope’s visit to Philadelphia, I wrote this:

Parents/guardians at CHOP wear a blue wristband. With this wristband, you can come and go as you please, even during Popapolooza, and people are generally really nice to you. I watched blue wristband people really closely this time. I envied the women in running clothes with their blue wrist bands, on the elevator and obviously either going or coming back from running. Why hadn’t I brought running clothes? Next time I’ll bring running clothes.

After that, I started taking Blue Wristband Selfies, primarily when running from the hospital:

First run from CHOP Blue Wristband selfie

Franklin Field BlueWristband selfie

Car on fire BlueWristband selfie

I began writing about our experiences in a series of Facebook posts on the day of each discharge. I’ve compiled most of those posts in the page Old Posts. Friends encouraged me to keep writing. This blog is about my experiences as a parent. We also created a Facebook page for people to follow along with Shawn’s progress and experiences.