Tag Archives: Therapy

Relief

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How did COVID impact you and your family?

I feel like my family was one of the lucky ones. We have a house (vs small space), with a yard, and an ability to get out and walk around our neighborhood without issue. I know for many others this would have been a luxury during COVID. I’m still coming to terms with the impact it had on our kids (we all are). How did this disruption change their course in life, or did it? How many of them are dealing with undiagnosed stress, anxiety, etc.? Including my own kids. They appear fine, but what if they aren’t?

A big part of parenting is helping your child and trying to keep them safe. COVID threw us all into unchartered waters and it feels like we’ll be finding out the true impact of the pandemic in the coming years. The pandemic impacted/continues to impact all of us.

Like many health care workers during the pandemic, our youngest son’s therapist decided to leave the profession. They needed a change. We couldn’t fault them. Finding a new psychologist for our son proved challenging—therapists not taking new clients, long wait lists, and more. And the days of “seeing if the therapist is a good fit” seem long gone, when you feel fortunate to have gotten an appointment with anyone at all.

After many calls, emails, and follow-up calls and emails, and research. We found someone for our son. What a relief. At least for now. My son is getting to know the therapist, and we’re providing feedback to them on what’s working for my son and what isn’t. What gives you even more relief is my son being advocating for himself and his therapist being open to the feedback.

How did the pandemic impact your child? What brings you relief now that we’re coming out of it?

I will be stepping away to enjoy Spring Break with the family and back later this month.

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

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What’s something funny your child has said?

My earliest memory of my kids saying something funny was after my youngest was born. After a week at home, his older brother asked my husband and I, “When are we going to recycle him?” We couldn’t help but laugh. We loved that our son recognized the importance of recycling, but found it funny that he was ready to send his brother to the bin and go back to being an only child. 😊 Needless to say, we explained you don’t recycle humans.

More recently my youngest has been delivering some pretty classic lines. On the first day of middle school I picked him up at the end of the day. The parking lot was full of parents picking up their kids. My son came towards me. “How was your day?” I asked. “Today was SOOOOO long. I’m exhausted,” he paused then continued, “Well, time to go see my therapist.” It was true he was going to see his therapist after school, but that was a coincidence. I burst out laughing when he said what he said, one, because how many of us have had days where we’d love to see a therapist following? And secondly because he said it so that every other parent could hear. They looked at me, then him. He responded to my laughing and the parents looks, “What? I am going to see my therapist.” You have to love these moments when my son doesn’t have a filter. The parents smiled looked at me. I shrugged, smiled and confirmed we were heading to see his therapist. I smiled the whole drive there.

Several weeks into the school year my son had another memorable moment. His class is working to build a tiny house for people in the neighborhood. They had some construction experts come in to walk the kids through the design and get them started on the project. My son shared that he saw one of the men while he was on the bus heading home. “He was smoking,” he said and then made a face and continued, “Not a good look.” Oh my goodness, I couldn’t help but laugh again. I get it, you see someone in one setting and assume you know who they are, and then see them in another context and it challenges what you thought you know. Yet my son was succinct in his observation — right, wrong, or indifferent. I wonder what he’ll say next.

What has your child said that made you laugh?