Supporting Mothers of Children with Special Needs
Supporting Mothers of Children with Special Needs
The strength, dedication, and boundless love exhibited by women who care for children with special needs are nothing short of extraordinary. These unsung heroes face unique challenges daily, but they do not have to navigate this journey alone. As a family member, friend, or community member, you have the power to play a crucial role in supporting these remarkable women.
Acknowledge Their Strength:
Women who care for children with special needs exhibit incredible strength in the face of adversity. Recognize and acknowledge their efforts to adapt, embrace challenges, and find joy in even the smallest victories.Provide a Listening Ear:
Emotional support is vital for moms of children with special needs. Be a compassionate listener and lend an empathetic ear. Allow them to express their hopes, fears, and frustrations without judgment.Offer Practical Assistance:
Caring for a child with special needs can be physically demanding. Offer practical assistance with daily tasks that do not involve direct interaction with their child with special needs, such as meal preparation, house chores, or running errands. By lightening their load, you can provide much-needed relief and support their overall well-being.Show Inclusion and Understanding:
Inclusion is crucial for families with children with special needs. Ensure that they feel welcome and supported in your community. Educate yourself about different disabilities, spread awareness, and advocate for accessible facilities and inclusive activities. By building an inclusive society, you help foster a sense of belonging and support.Consider Being a Source of Respite:
The demands of caretaking can be overwhelming. Depending on your familiarity and related skills, offer to provide respite care by looking after the child with special needs for a few hours or a day. Breaks allow moms to recharge, focus on self-care, or spend quality time with their other family members. Of course, such an offer would be highly case-by-case. It wouldn’t be a break for mom if she would be worried about your ability to handle the care! Such an offer must be realistic as well as sincere.Foster Connections:
Facilitate connections with other moms facing similar challenges. Encourage the formation or participation in support groups where these women can share experiences, provide mutual support, and exchange invaluable advice. These connections can help alleviate feelings of isolation and provide a strong support network.Promote Advocacy:
Work together to ensure equal access to education, healthcare, therapies, and other necessary resources. By amplifying their voices, you become a crucial ally on their journey.
Special Note: The divorce rate for parents of children with special needs is high. Many of these women are single parents. As family members, friends, and community members, we all have a crucial role to play in providing the necessary support and understanding.
If Nothing Else Remember This
Ask a mom, “What’s one way I could make this a better week for you?”
Imagine if every week of the year every mom of a child with special needs heard that question from someone they trust? That’s four or five trustworthy people asking once a month.
You could be the one to rally them.
Conclusion:
Supporting mothers of children with special needs is not just about words—it’s about action. To learn more about how you can make a real impact in the lives of these incredible women, schedule a phone call today. Let’s discuss practical ways to provide support, build connections, and promote advocacy within your community. Together, we can empower these mothers and help them thrive.
HOMESCHOOLING: Haven or Havoc?
Your child's school years are precious and fleeting.
Now could be your best time to step up where your school is letting your child down. Let this series of myth-busting short chapters encourage you.
2 Major Mistakes
Which one will you make?
Which of these 2 retirement mistakes are you making right now? It's impossible to entirely avoid both mistakes.
You won't know for sure which mistake will work out better for you until it's too late.
How to choose?
Finding the Will
(Part 1)
Part 1: Have the will to arrange for a smooth transition when you’re no longer around to answer questions
Have the will to arrange for a smooth transition when you’re no longer around to answer questions (Part 1)
Ensuring your children or other Loved Ones can readily access your important papers when you die entails a sound process versus one or two conversations. You must overcome aversion to the subject of death, procrastination of anything that is long-term, and the tendency to assume things will be fine. Family dynamics can be sweet, spicy, or dicey.
Finding the Will
(Part 2)
Part 2: Getting Organized
While the internet permits convenient access to accounts, policies, and stored documents, it presents a plethora of password management problems. which too many people avoid by succumbing to password laziness, such as:
- re-using passwords for multiple logins, or
- use simple, easy to remember passwords, or
- writing them on sticky notes placed on their monitor or under their keyboard, or
- keeping them in a spreadsheet on their computer, or
- letting their browser remember passwords for them
Embrace Your Clarence
Is Clarence your future?
Golden insight from a golden retriever.
Post-Pandemic W.E.L.L.ness
Working, Earning, Learning, and Launching to Thrive
Where life drastically changed forever two years ago, everyone adjusted to the best of their abilities.
Here are a few of the key adjustments--"pandemic pivots"--that sustained some and prospered others.
Prenuptial Adulting
Equip Them for Happily Ever After
“Mom, Dad, we’re getting married!"
“Wonderful, congratulations! Here’s what you both need to do first.”
Equipping newlyweds with essentials of responsibility leaves plenty of life yet to be discovered on their own. Adults understand that love isn’t oogly feelings; it’s a hard choice. It’s putting your commitments and your money where your mouth is.
Many of the following steps also apply to one’s turning 18 years old. Becoming engaged adds urgency and a deadline.
Rethinking Competing Funds for College and Retirement
We live in a time of skyrocketing inflation topping decades of unbridled higher education costs.
Is the tension between funding your retirement and funding (at least partially) your children’s college education keeping you up at night?
You’re not alone.
Married? Is Your Endgame 100% or Just 50%?
Are you single? That other 50% could be whoever is most important to you.
Multiple unforgiving players factor into your retirement and estate plans (collectively your “endgame”). Household names include the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Key decisions with these players are nearly impossible to reverse. Plus, if you qualify for a pension, how you activate it is another irreversible decision.
Are you more of a planner than your spouse? It’s all too common for one spouse to blindly trust the planning spouse. Countless endgame “plans” were created by 50% of a couple:
