I hear parents all the time proclaim, “I’d do anything for my child on the spectrum.”
Heck, we say it too. And we all do, right?
We spend hours, days, weeks, months, YEARS, supporting… advocating… caring for… loving… sometimes even tussling – like when our kids DO NOT want to go to therapies… or brush their teeth… or, well… SO MANY other things….
Sometimes it can feel like every minute of every day (and deep in to the night and early morning) we’re on “constant call” just in case something goes awry.
So yeah, we WOULD do anything for our kids on the spectrum… and our typical kids… and our families. We ALREADY do.
But what do we do when we’re asked to invest what we don’t have? Like what happened to us a few years back.
That’s right, after spending THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS on therapies, experts and doctors that DIDN’T result is us regaining some happiness and lowered stress in our home… we were broke, in debt, and not sure what else we could do.
And right at that time – as always seems to happen – we came across an opportunity to be a part of a program that we thought MAYBE could really help our family…
But, of course – it was “out of reach” because we couldn’t afford anything else.
Sound familiar?
H O W E V E R…
We KNEW we wanted a happy family… and were willing to keep trying… we weren’t going to just… give up.
So… we decided we’d try two things.
The first thing we did was ask ourselves, “Is that really true?” Was there something that we were spending our (not much) money on now… that we’d “trade” for our families happiness?
Our answer was, OF COURSE, YES!
We found some things that we were spending our money on that were not necessities… and we were willing to “trade” or “sacrifice” those things if it would give us a better chance at family happiness.
For us, we had to “find” and “trade” more than $100 a month… that we didn’t think we had… and looking back… we’re super-happy we did.
Any sacrifices we’ve made (for our family) have always been worth it.
Piggybacking on that, the second thing we did that REALLY propelled us forward, might seem kind of harsh, but made a huge difference in the way we viewed our family.
We decided that we’d never again say, “That’s too expensive…” because we knew we’d do anything for our family.
So, instead of saying “that’s too expensive” We starting saying this:
“OUR FAMILY’S HAPPINESS JUST ISN’T WORTH THE INVESTMENT.”
Wow, huh?
For us it’s still painful to say… it still hurts… and it’s rough to hear… but we STILL say it….
because it has made a huge difference in how we view (and value) our family.
Now, I’m NOT saying we should do and try everything. We shouldn’t friviously spend. And you probably already know what doesn’t and hasn’t worked.
I’m just suggesting we be willing to invest in our families when we think there’s a chance it could help us live happier, more fulfilled lives.
Agree, disagree? Let me hear it.
