We’ve chosen to go to marriage counseling because we are all too aware of just how immeasurably stressful our lives are. Raising three special needs kids is not easy and if we don’t take care of ourselves along the way, we’re destined to repeat our run in with caregiver burnout.
During today’s session, we focused on laying a foundation that we can build upon as we move forward.
One of the things that we need need to build is a more effective support network. Our parents are amazing and we would be lost without them but we need to broaden our support network to perhaps include services that might be available through local agencies as well.
Respite is something that we have never had in fifteen years of doing the Autism parenting dance. We have our parents but that’s the extent.
As exhausted as Lizze and I are, we have never trusted anyone other than our immediate family to watch the kids. It takes a truly special person to take on that responsibility and the list of people we trust for that is extremely short.
What we learned today is that even if we don’t add to our support system, we need to find ways to make the time we do get to ourselves as beneficial as possible.
