Your Own Grief Matters

🌟Weekly Inspiration🌟

Parents often sideline their own grief to protect their kids. This is understandable and appropriate at times, adults must keep functioning at some level when caring for children.

However, the truth is that kids are watching and learning how to handle hard things from you. Your modeling of grief, sadness, vulnerability, and stress is being noted by the children in your house. If there has been a loss, or an ambiguous loss, it's okay to be human and have your own responses. Psychotherapist and author Daryl Chow reminds us that grief is evidence of what mattered. He shared, "grief informs love, and love can only truly exist with grief around the corner, asking us to come to our senses."

It might be helpful to think of the oxygen mask principle, tending to your own grief (putting on your own oxygen mask first) will help you parent through a challenging loss. Could you create space to name the losses? "Our family is going through something hard, and it's okay to feel sad."

Ask Yourself:

What am I grieving that I don't always acknowledge?
What is my fear in modeling vulnerability at times?
Do I wish for my children's lives to be free of grief and loss? Is that possible?
Is there anything I'd like to communicate to my children about grief?
Is life hard or easy?

Remember your own resilience❤️