ask april
“Any advice for parents dealing with children with disabilities. I struggle with this as my youngest son has had several surgeries, procedures and appointments for his club feet. Its ongoing and I feel like it consumes me mentally physically and emotionally at times… like I take on the burden for my child you know. Also think it affects my other son the most because he see’s me spending a lot of time with his brother.” Jamie, ALL parents can relate to the feelings you are having…not being a parent, the love and worry that comes from being a parent is only something I can compare to my love for my niece and nephew which pales to the love of a parent… First let me encourage you in that kids are resilient, like REALLY resilient…with the love and consistency of the adults in his life he will be able to overcome anything…it just may not look like what you expect… The child that you anticipated when you were pregnant (healthy, happy, the world’s idea of perfect) is different than the child you have now…and while you would never trade your child for another, you have to reconcile the anticipated with the …Read more
Two years teaching life skills to families whose children were at IMMINENT risk of being removed, may have ruined my ability to sit with problems…When things need to change so that families can keep their children, there is an intensity that is needed…Empathy/sympathy now comes with a healthy dose of reality, and problem solving… Spending hours teaching parents how to re-frame the stories in their heads from toxic to healthy has become the default for how I approach almost any situation. My ability to accurately asses a situation and separate the truth from the ‘bunk’ is finely tuned… After some encouragement from a friend to start a podcast where I can provide my words of wisdom (read informed opinions) regarding a range of topics I decided to go slow… While I am not at all ready for a podcast both in courage or equipment, I do think that I would like to test the idea out here at Careless in the Care of God… SO, I am asking for your questions… Questions that you think someone with a social work background might be able to shed some light upon…I have extensive training in parenting, REBT, Motivational Interviewing, how to communicate with others… Seriously…throw some questions at me, …Read more
