Look after yourself first

People don’t always understand how tough it can be to parent a child who experiences the world differently.

To have to stand up to family and friends who think it should be done one way, to stand up to professionals who have ideas that don’t necessarily make sense for our kids, to juggle work with trying to convince our kids to go to school, when school is open, to manage appointments with professionals, to fight for the right support when it should be given.

So many hoops to jump through. So much paperwork. Perhaps our partner sees things differently – that can be tough too.

We should have people who say ‘I see you are struggling – what do you need?’ It really is a warrior path. There are loads of things outside our control.

And yet there are also tiny things we do still have some control over. It’s really easy to not notice them when we feel so powerless in so many areas. And yet by doing one tiny thing for ourselves each day we build a little muscle, a little resilience, we offer that support to ourselves that we desperately need.

Then we have possibility for things in our life being different. Not everything. And maybe more big things. But little things that make me feel good every day help me along this really tough path.

We also show our kids how we can take care of ourselves and that is such a great learning for them. It brightens my day to do one tiny thing for me. I hope you can find 5 mins for you amongst it all. With warmest wishes xxx