Let go

Being a parent is hard. Being a therapist is hard. Letting go is part of the process for both roles.

As a parent our main goal is to teach our children to be independent. Our main goal as a therapist...is to do the same. For both roles...we are trying to encourage positive self esteem and confidence. We are teaching our children to make good choices and to be able to give back to society. We are teaching our children to love and to be happy.

Parents of children diagnosed with Autism can have a very challenging time "letting go". Letting go: takes trust and faith that the child is going to be OK without them. This is difficult, given all of the emotional challenges and difficulties that many of these families face. The mom is often, filled with guilt and sadness. Knowing in her head that she needs to let go...but in her heart not wanting to. Sometimes that can be for selfish reasons....but mostly it is because, letting go feels like you are letting a part of you go. It hurts.

I don't think it matters if your child is typical developing or developmentally delayed. This is hard! No one said that bringing a brand new helpless baby into this world was easy. They definitely didn't inform us that...letting go, little by little is painful, scary, sad and joyful, all at the same time.

Eventually, we all have to let go. The best thing that we can do as parents and therapists is to provide our children with the necessary skills to be as independent and strong as possible.

We need to love our children unconditionally everyday...for everything! We also need to have faith... and trust that our children are going to be OK!!