Perspectives in Parenting

In 2012, I gave birth to my second child Ever, 15 months after my firstborn. I had an expectation that he would have very similar milestones to his brother, and when he did not hit any of them, it was concerning. I started to spiral. My first move was to seek out the help of a neurologist who had formed a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at 18 months. Finding out that your child has autism is a challenging and emotional experience for any parent, and then add to it, you have no road map to navigate the experience unless you’ve had experience with it before. I was lost, lost until Families Helping Families entered the narrative. Thankfully...

2023 Red Stick Mom Teacher of the Year There are not enough ways to say THANK YOU for all that our beloved teachers have done for us and our children, especially over the last few years. Thank you for your flexibility, thank you for you putting in extra hours, thank you for coming up with creative lesson plans to keep your students engaged, thank you for spending your hard-earned money on classroom supplies. Thank you for your unending devotion to our children and our families. One small way we thought we could extend our appreciation is to honor one very deserving teacher with our 2023 Red Stick Mom Teacher of the Year title! Whether s/he teaches our little ones in preschool...

I’m sorry. I am so sorry. You are about to walk through living hell. You’re going to ask a thousand questions. You may even try to blame yourself. You’re going to battle grief, while teaching your children to grieve. You will grieve in the deepest caverns you’ve ever experienced while watching your spouse fall apart. People will offer you comfort and food en masse. People will also say some really shit things. Some intentionally, most in innocence. Here’s what I need you to know, there ARE words for this. They are gritty and ugly, and many people won’t want to face them, so you’ll hear it over and over again, “there are no words.” There are, this sucks, it’s not...

If you are from Louisiana, you are probably a steel magnolia. We live in a beautiful state with cypress trees and bayous, but we pay for it during every hurricane season when we roll the dice. We wait to see if a big one (or ones) is going to threaten our property, day-to-day life, and our world as we know it. But if you are going to live here, you do it. You roll your eyes when they cancel school even though it was just a strong breeze. You celebrate when November comes and the season was relatively quiet. You prepare, worry, and mourn when the worst-case scenario hits too close to home. But if you have been here long enough,...

What keeps me grounded when work becomes too much? My babies. My 3-year-old twins and my 5-year-old boy always reach for me to be held. I’m reaching for them as well. How did I ever do life without you? I’ve always been adventurous, brave, and a self-sufficient person. As an only child, I created my own fun. How I was as a child correlated to my adulthood. My career and relationships along the way have taught me a lot of character and life lessons, but my babies are teaching me things I never knew I needed. Patience… I take after my dad’s demeanor. He loves big but is impatient. I hate waiting and my anxiety makes me want everything to happen immediately. My...