Reflections

There have been many times in our family where life felt so hard and stayed feeling so hard for much longer than I expected it to.

I would spend weeks thinking that once we got through a particular thing, once everyo...

For years I thought good parenting meant staying calm on the outside no matter what I was carrying underneath.

I got that from everywhere. Hold it together. Don't let them see you rattled. Be the steady one. And I tr...

There was a season I couldn't shower alone. Couldn't use the bathroom alone. Couldn't go for a walk or make a cup of tea. I could barely do a single thing, honestly. My nervous system, and my children's nervous systems, ...

When my child had an accident, I used to read it as a step backwards, as a failure, as a sign that we were behind and that I'd missed something or needed to try harder to get them across some invisible line into independ...

This piece was first published on Kristy's Substack. Shared here so it's easier to find.

"A child gives one word, and the adult wants a paragraph. A teenager shares one feeling, and the parent asks five questions. T...