Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Client-tell

On Wednesday a coworker notified the staff that she's pregnant. I was so happy for her and yet it got me to thinking about how horrifying the shock of pregnancy could be.

It got me thinking about how much of a joy, but how unplanned fears of the unfamiliar can help determine a mother's tolerance for "morning sickness" or all of the other pains and scares of pregnancy.

And then I wondered about my clients.

I wonder how many of them came as a surprise to their mothers. And especially in the "little kid's" room across the hall, I wonder how it must have felt to see "the baby" not being able to grow out of that stage. I wonder what it felt like the first time a mother realised that "the baby" wasn't like other babies.

A lot of our clients' parents come in with frustrations. "He doesn't act right." "He can't behave." And a lot of parents of these kids want us to fix this kid.

But some parents are just flat out overwhelmed with the plight that has been handed them, or the plight that they have chosen. It's so easy to make a naive decision. And not all things come out just like they're planned, no matter how well thought out.
And the more that I'm an "adult" I realise how much "we adults" don't know. It's not like you're handed this manual or all of a sudden after college answers to hard like situations pop into your head.

Experience shapes us.

And then to think that some of the beginnings of the stressors of these parents' lives began with a plus sign that could never be erased.


It just makes me think that not every story is written in the ideal... but with a little encouragement and supports, the story does not have to end like it began...

unplanned.


... I was just thinking ...

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