Mentally Retarded Parents

It definately depends on the severity of the parents disability as well as what other support is available. A friend of mine from school had one parent with a slight mental as well as a physical disability. His other parent was obviously the main carer for all of them, so you couldnt really judge how much the one with disability was capable of. What i did find interesting was that my friend had picked up alot of mannerisms from his disabled parent, although he was just short of a genius and in all the top classes he spoke and put his words together as though he had a mental disability.

So i suppose that also raises the question of, if a parent with a disability is able to care for their child/ren what will the effects on the kids be?? I work in disabilities now, and i think that a very good support base for these parents would solve alot of the problems. Alot of children whose parents have disabilities have to grow up very fast and end up doing alot of caring. Although that can be a great thing for maturity levels, etc. it can severly affect the way that they get to interact with other people, especially kids their own age. If they have a good support base (ie. carers for the parents, meeting other kids in the same situation, having times where they can just go and play with their school friends) the effects on them are much lessened.