Recently I had a mom ask me “Am I doing enough for my son?” She then went on to say that she didn’t feel like she could ever do enough. I am sure many parents feel that way. I had another parent say to me that even though she felt that her child was making progress she can still see all of the areas that need improvement and that can feel overwhelming.
Is there always more that could be done? Absolutely, but this is true in many aspects of our life. I truly believe that as parents we make choices about what we do for our children and our family and it should be about the quality of those choices not the quantity. I also know that sometimes the choices we make can seem overwhelming especially if the choice involves a lot of work or will take an extended amount of time to accomplish.
I think that is one of the great things about the mission previews we have families write as part of their RDI® program. It allows the parent and consultant to get a big picture while taking the baby steps to get there. It is the final destination with some pit stops along the way while the objectives in RDI® program is road families travel to get to that end point. Sometimes I think that we get lost on the road and then begin to question whether we are doing enough or we become overwhelmed. This the point at which we need to pull over and look again at the stops we want to make along the way our final destination and ask ourselves if we are still on the right path. What we may be surprised to find is that we have already passed some of our pit stops without realizing it or that we have made some stops that we were not expecting. If we have veered off the road then this is a great time to examine how we get back on the right path.
The only way to know if we are doing enough is to know where we want to end up and then decide what we need to do to get to that ending destination. If you haven’t taken time to think about what you would like for your child in the future I encourage you to do that. Once you have done this take some time to decide if you are on the right road or if a course correction is needed.
Talk to you soon,
Erin
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FREE Strategies and Support: On the Horizon
On the Horizon is a weekly ezine for parents of children with developmental disabilities who want simple, effective strategies to reduce stress, support their child's development, and improve quality of life for the whole family.
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- Horizons
- Caledonia, MI, United States
- At Horizons our mission is to empower families to achieve great things with their children affected by autism and other developmental disabilities. Our work with families revolves around principles of remediation, specifically utilizing the Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) Program for autism and related disorders. Our talented team of clinicians works together to comprehensively address the needs of families who allow us the privilege of joining them on their journey.
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1 comment:
What a great way to think about this! I agree that as a parent you always feel there is more you could do, but thinking about our end goals is helpful for gaining perspective - Am i doing the things that will help us get there? Quality, not quantity!
Great post, Erin!
-Nicole
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