AMEN! I couldn’t have said it better myself. Your perspective as a parent, however, is one I hadn’t thought of fully. As a Dad of three precious children I empathize with you. May God bless your family
I have NONE of the posted titles ( Ph.D , Engineer etc,.etc. etc. )…I still maintain …regardless …" One has to manage one’s Diabetes " …Please keep having fun 
and possibly English being my second language is getting in the way …that’s a great excuse 
I am a person w/ diabetes for just under 30 years:) Identifiers influence how we see people and potential outcomes…I do not see diabetes as “me”…it is a condition that I have and hope to get rid of some day.
It does not matter to me. I have Diabetes(noun) and I am a Diabetic(adjective). I also have Arthritis and I am Arthritic. I have Asthma and I am Asthmatic. They are only words. I know for me, there are way more important things than that, to get bent out of shape over. I was dxd. 48 years ago this month.
**Happy New Year!!
I feel stupid. I’d been wondering which it should be. I pretty much freaked out when I was initially diagnosed. So for a bit I couldn’t remember what it was my doc told me… Do I have diabetes? Am I diabetic? Which is correct? What do I tell people? Do I tell people? These questions bothered me for the first couple of months really. Seems really stupid thinking about it now, but really it’s sorta dumb I guess for me to be that worried about it.
I go along with Patti LaBelle, she is one of the first commercials I saw after being diagnosed. She says I have diabetes, it doesn’t have me. I will fight and work to keep my health, but it won’t take over my life, as it does so many others. Theres a lot to do out there, and I am planning to drink from the cup of life for a long time.
Christopher:
Your response reminded me of a corollary discussion in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community – how many of its members see themselves and the choices available to handle deafness.
Like diabetes, deafness is an invisible disability/condition that is easily misunderstood by those who are not
But anyone who gets to know a deaf individual will find out that there are distinctions between lower case deaf and upper case Deaf; the former refers to the condition whereas the latter is a cultural identifier. My deaf friends refer to themselves as Deafies and to me as Hearing. There are equivalent controversies, as well – American Sign Language versus oral communication (English), hearing aids versus cochlear implants. One parallel I see in the diabetes community is pump versus (I think this is the correct term) MDI.
So I guess I would refer to myself as Diabetic and living with diabetes.
-vicki