Mental Health

 Wow!

 I know, I know it’s a real thing. I have people that I love and care about that struggle. With all that understood and said the question I have is, how much is illness and how much is we are told we are sick?  How much mental illness is actual, “buck up buttercup and get over it”.  I’m not saying that about the bad stuff. What I’m talking about is... the little things. 

I don’t want to go to school? I don’t want to clean my room? I don’t want to do the dishes? I don’t have to....

Whatever happened to you didn’t have a choice? You got up in the morning, made your bed, got dressed/cleaned up, went to school (walked to school or bus stop), stayed at school the whole day without a cell phone, walked home or rode the buss home. Once you were home you changed your clothes, did your chores ( these were your responsibilities without being paid), homework and then maybe free time before a bedtime.

It’s my opinion that it’s been forgotten that when you are given the blessing of having a child that you are raising a future adult. An adult that one day will have to have a job, take care of a home and be responsible.  Raising children is not easy and they do not come with manuals. Wouldn’t it be great if they did?...At year 10 ,month 8 day 12 your child will xyz and in response you will abc.  As parents we make mistakes, we are human. We are doing the best we can with the tools we have in our parental toolbox. It’s okay to tell our kids, I messed up. I could have handled that differently. It’s okay to give kids choices but don’t let them choose themselves right into bad choices. Don’t let them choose themselves into people that no one wants to be around.

Choices have consequences. It’s okay to let your kids have consequences. Isn’t that how you learned? Now, don’t take it completely outside of what I mean . If you clearly can see that they are going to cause harm to themself or others than you need to intervene. Life is tough. Life is even tougher when you haven’t prepared for it.