Last year, the Surgeon General warned that parents in the United States are overwhelmed and

burned out. One group of parents is often overlooked, the one in 15 with disabilities.

Jessica Slice became disabled years before becoming a mother. The experience, she says,

prepared her for parenthood. Ali Rogan spoke with her about her new book, Unfit Parent,

A Disabled Mother challenges an inaccessible world.

It's part of our series, Disabilities Re-Framed.

Jessica Slice, thank you so much for being here.

You write in the very introduction of your book,

Disabled parents have something powerful

and transformative to offer. Tell me about that.

Yeah, I think that disabled parents have been rejected by the systems that govern parenting for everyone.

And from that place of rejection, we formed our own way of parenting. And I think actually that way that we

formed can be an off ramp for all parents, from consumeristic parenting, from perfection-driven

parenting, from the sense that we should be able to willpower our kids into safety and ultimate

happiness. You spent much of your adult life, your young adult life, as a non-disabled person,

and you write about that transition and what it was like for you in the book.

But what wisdom and tools do you think you bring to parenting as a disabled parent,

as somebody who became a parent while disabled, that you wouldn't have been equipped to hold if you

were not disabled. Yeah. So when I was in my 20s, I had this sense that happiness or perfection

was just around the corner, that if I could just do things a little bit better, then I would really

enjoy my life. And disability pride, that perfectionism from my hands. And

since becoming disabled, I'm much better at just taking my days as they are. And I know that many

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