It may not feel like it right now, but you’re going to survive the challenges your child is facing.
Whether you’ve recently learned your child has a learning disability, or you’ve been working through this situation for years, the reality is that the struggles your child is going through have a profound impact on you as a parent.
Though it is perfectly normal to experience feelings of fear, disappointment, frustration, worry, anger, and even embarrassment, what I’ve discovered as I’ve worked with hundreds of parents is that they often struggle to acknowledge their feelings.
A common theme that I see is that parents feel that if they do acknowledge these types of feelings, it may come across like they don’t love their child, or that they’re not accepting their child as they are.
But the reality is that you can absolutely love your child with your whole heart, and at the same time experience pain and disappointment that their childhood is not working out the way you had envisioned it would.
Heck, we all dream of the perfect childhood for our children, where there is little pain, great accomplishments, lots of joy, and they live happily ever after.
It may not seem of great importance to you, but the reality is that one of the most important things you can do to support your child with learning challenges is to acknowledge the feelings you are experiencing and to accept and process your disappointment.
By offering yourself the grace and freedom to feel your feelings, and to mourn the loss of the things that did not work out the way you had hoped, you end up allowing yourself to be more open to a potentially new and better future than you ever dreamed was possible. And in turn, you teach your child to do the same!
The alternative, where you cling to the idea of somehow helping your child fit the norm, or fit into an environment where they truly cannot thrive, inadvertently damages their self-esteem and it creates ongoing frustration and disappointment for you.
I want to share a very important truth with you, my friend…
It is okay that your child has learning challenges! It is okay that your child can’t thrive in a mainstream classroom! It is okay that your child needs more support than their sibling, or the child next-door! And it is okay that this reality has caused you to experience moments of grief and pain!
This may not be the path that you had envisioned for your child, but there truly is hope for growth and change.
And one thing that I have experienced and know is true is that the hardest situations in life often produce our greatest joys and successes in life.
Regardless of the challenges they are currently facing, as your child pushes through their struggles, their disappointments, their fears, and their pains, they will discover that they have a great future ahead of them… and so do you!
