Parenting

An Ordinary Mom's Musings > Parenting
How I Made It Through the Past 15 Years?

How I Made It Through the Past 15 Years?

Yesterday, I spoke via Zoom to students and medical professionals from the University of Tennessee. The topic was, “What is it like raising my child with special needs.“ This is something I volunteer for regularly because it is so important to me that these young medical professionals have a small understanding of what is going on in the lives of the patients and families they see.

One of the questions I was asked was, “What do I do to be able to make it through the really bad times.” I thought that this was a really good topic for discussion here. Because if you have a special needs child, you deal with some really heavy things. Things that if you begin explaining to people who don’t experience things similar, will start slowly backing away and have a look of a deer caught in the headlights.

Our lives are different.

But we can still find beauty, peace, hope, and love even in the midst of the heartache and storm.

There is hope.

So what do I do that helps get me through?

My number one reliance is on God. When I reach that point where I can’t carry on, he has ALWAYS been there for me. He carries me through in sweet and miraculous ways. Like the time he actually sent someone to clean my bathrooms. I’m not making this up. He sent someone to do my most despised chore of all when I was at the end of my rope.

Finding, and making sure that I have things that bring me joy in my life is another thing that I hold tightly to. Fresh baked anything will always put a smile on my face. A good book, or British TV show brings a sense of calm to my soul I really relish. Playing or singing music, working in my garden to grow things of use and beauty. It makes me feel like I’ve really accomplished something and my soul rejoices in the beauty of what I have done.

Hot, long baths. This is my staple. When my children were small my husband had a very unpredictable work schedule. We also had very little money. Things people would think of for self-care, like going and getting a massage, shopping, girl’s nights out and vacations were very rarely something I could pull off. When you have kids like ours, even if you do have the money, finding a babysitter can be extremely problematic. So as soon as my kids were safely asleep I would grab a book and take a steaming hot bath. Water cools down? No problem, just add more hot water. I’m not sure I could have made it through if it weren’t for those baths. I have been known on occasion to take 3 hour baths.

Another lifeline was finding other people who were experiencing similar things. Parents who also had special needs children who had their own brand of unusual. One mom I know wore a football helmet every time she got in the car to protect herself from things being thrown at her while driving. I’m sure there was more than one second glass as she drove the freeways to and from appointments. But this is the kind of different we live in. Knowing that there are people out there that get why we do what we do, and can even top our story? It’s a God send. These are your people and your kid’s people.

So if you are wondering, “How can I make it through another day of this?” Try a few of these out. They helped me a lot.

My Greatest Hope and My Greatest Fear

My Greatest Hope and My Greatest Fear

“Two and one half years.

That’s the amount of time I have left until my son turns 18. Every time I think about it, terror grips my heart.”

Read more…

Am I Allowed to Fail As A Mother?

As a mother,

As a person,

Am I allowed to fail?

Just once?

Only in one area?

Only on Tuesdays?

What are the rules?

Can someone please tell me?

I thought when we made it successfully through a school year last year, we were okay, despite the masks. This year, we made it 2 weeks into the school year before the High School shut down to quarantine all students.

Meanwhile, I’m back at work for the first time in 12 years and I’m getting emails from teachers complaining because my child isn’t logging on to the Zoom classes. He hasn’t had access to the internet except for school all week, but he doesn’t seem to care.

This week I have failed as a mother.

My child hasn’t gotten dressed and showered on time. Some days, I’m not sure he showered. His version of an essay is one sentence with zero punctuation this week. I’ve only looked at his work a couple times to check that he has done it. I work all day and have been working overtime to deal with our company’s response to COVID, and that is taxing. I’m single parenting because my husband’s away for a few months with this job undergoing training that is extremely stressful for him.

And so, I failed as a mother this week.

My kids have raided the fridge, wandered around in clothes that I’m not sure when they were last washed, with my son skipping school assignments he will have to make up later. Meanwhile, I’m getting upset texts from teachers and I might have bought all the Snickers bars from the vending machine at work.

This week, I failed as a mother.

But there’s always next week.

Being Held Emotionally Hostage

“I was recently talking with another mom who has a child with mental health issues. While talking she used the term “emotionally held hostage.” Those three words struck a cord with me because so often in the special needs, disability, and mental health worlds it can feel like we are being held hostage. By our children, spouses, parents, and even ourselves through our own illnesses.”
Read more…

Feeling like a fraud

Feeling like a fraud

“And so I sit here, trying to understand that because my life is not filled with trauma causing events, and has really calmed down in a lot of ways, that it makes me feel like a fraud. As mental health is my chosen field to study and eventually work in… This makes me want to dig into this further.”
Read more…

My Daughter’s Proud of Her ADHD

My Daughter’s Proud of Her ADHD

“So often we think of disabilities as hard, horrible things. Yet here was my daughter saying that she was proud of one of hers.”
Read more. . .

Why We Say No To Slumber Parties

Why We Say No To Slumber Parties

I had a unique slumber party when I was probably 10 or 11, compared to a lot of other slumber parties. My family owned a small motel. I was able to invite about 10 girls over for a slumber party in one of our motel rooms, sans chaperones. We spent the night binging on tv and snacks and at one point after midnight, snuck out down the street for a bit. If my parents only knew. . .

But not all slumber parties are fun.

Not all slumber parties end well.

I overheard girls talking about me and others when they thought I was asleep. It wasn’t kind.

Generally, it has been our practice not to allow our kids to have, or participate in sleepovers.

My number one reason?

I was going to say-

Because kids are a complete mess the next morning from not sleeping the night before. I’m all for my kids having fun and spending time with friends. Dealing with the aftermath of not enough sleep.

But the real reason is safety.

Graffiti on a wall with a picture of a girl and the words rescue me
Image by Eduardo Davad from Pixabay

Did you know that most children who are trafficked in the U.S. are trafficked not by a stranger but by a family member or someone they know?

At slumber parties things get tried for the first time- pills, alcohol, smoking, touching, and experimenting.

My kids will make choices.

But I want to make sure that they are old enough to understand the choices and the consequences they are making. I don’t think it’s fair to make them deal with circumstances they aren’t ready to deal with.

Am I sheltering my children?

Maybe.

But I also know that the longer they go without smoking, the less likely it is they will ever smoke.

The longer they go without drinking, doing drugs, the less likely this is going to be a problem for them. Not that they won’t ever try them, because they might. But the longer it is that they don’t, the better.

My children are totally capable of making mistakes and do frequently. So do I for that matter.

Giving them the time to figure out how they feel about things, to learn the information for themselves, and give them a chance to see others making mistakes is priceless. So I’m going to keep sheltering my children for a little while longer while giving them freedoms to choose that I feel are appropriate.

Child Loss- A Sibling In Heaven

Child Loss- A Sibling In Heaven

”Growing up, I always knew I had a sister in heaven. I remember talking to her as a child and making promises that I would make all the right choices so that I could join her in Heaven one day. For me, she had personality and vitality and was waiting for me to join her so that we could fulfill our relationship as sisters.”
Read more. . .