We need to be grown ups and we need real Leadership.

We’re bombarded by news from all sides all the time. When I was a kid news was non-alarmist. It was actually neutral. You could turn on the news and the reporters would make their report without drawing many, or any, conclusions. They generally didn’t takes sides, didn’t use sarcasm or other ploys to undercut one side of an issue or the other, and just reported facts as they understood them. There were weather segments, sports segments, human interest stories, reports on political things, like bills going through the house or senate, reports on campaigns and such, but it was all handled in a pretty grown-up way, neutral. If a big-ass storm was coming they said so, looked at projections and passed along whatever warnings or advisories were coming through official sources. Somewhere along the line ratings became the all important thing, I suspect capitalism is behind it, rich men bought news stations and wanted to get more and more money, maybe there were shareholders who wanted the same thing.

So now we come to today and the news cycle is 24/7 and everyone from everywhere is desperate for ratings and we have the insanity of alarmist headlines, misleading BS being shoveled day and night. We stress out about threats both real and imagined. Everyone is so overwhelmed and confused that they don’t know what to believe. We’ve all heard weird conflicting stories that something like Kale, or milk, or toothpaste, causes cancer and then we’ll hear down the road that it actually prevents cancer, or that yoga will both cause and prevent migraines. Then we get walloped with a global pandemic. Actual medical experts are telling us to stay away from each other because symptomless people can spread this, and this virus is a BEAST. Covid-19 is an insidious, treacherous, murderous, monster of a virus. Some people have it and don’t get sick, that is, they don’t develop a fever, cough, shortness of breath, and don’t wind up on a ventilator fighting for their lives. Or they have a super mild case, hardly felt a thing. But, well, a few things:

This thing is Contagious. Really quite contagious, and there are people who get it, suffer almost unimaginably, suffer it all essentially alone, and DIE.
Some of the people who don’t get sick initially are suffering a massively aggressive clotting condition that is causing murderous strokes in people way younger than usually get them, needing amputations because of these clots.
Some of those symptomless people, as well as people who manage to survive through a near fatal bout of it, go on to suffer organ failure, heart attacks, and so on.
Some of the people dying of this are children. Seemingly healthy children who might have some symptoms, but not alarming ones, who develop a terrifying syndrome involving inflammation of or around their vital organs. Some of these kids are dying.

When we are being asked to stay home, it isn’t about our “freedom” it isn’t about that at all, it’s about public health and safety. If you are a parent, caretaker of children, other people, pets, or even plants, please imagine there is a viable threat to that being or beings that you care about. Let’s imagine this theoretical threat is something outside and that the best and safest thing to do is to stay inside the house until the threat is over. There is some toxin in the air, do you leave your kids out playing in the yard? Do you leave your dog outside in their run? It’s a plant devouring insect swarm, do you leave plants in pots out on the unenclosed porch? No, because you are not a monster. So you bring the kids inside despite the fact that they want to stay outside. Are you “restricting their freedom?” Technically, by definition, but what a wrong-headed way to frame the situation. You are saving their lives. You are “restricting their freedom” as much as a lifeguard restricts someone’s freedom to drown while being dragged out to sea by the undertow.

We really all need to look at this whole situation like grown ups. We are adults, hopefully compassionate, empathetic adults, so that we can see that even if we might not feel under direct threat from this virus, even if we imagine our immune system would kick Covid-19’s scrawny ass, we understand that there are a lot of people who aren’t that lucky. There are people with conditions that suppress their immune systems, are obese, elderly, have lung issues, or are otherwise vulnerable to this thing cannot afford to get this. We need to protect them by curtailing our behavior. I know there are people, loads and loads of people who have lost their jobs because of this shut down. They are in trouble now, they are suffering and it is very, very real, but the answer is not reopening the country. Because we are here right now, with the infection rate still climbing, we cannot go out and mingle, that will just cause another massive spike and another shutdown of everything. Not to mention all the suffering and dying it will bring to many of those who get infected. We need a massive, measured, thoughtful response from our government. We need proper, comprehensive support for all who have lost jobs, we need proper support and protection for medical professionals, PPE, we need housing protection for all who can’t pay mortgages and rent, we need food distribution so people are not going hungry, and on and on. To those who immediately want to say: “How will we pay for it? Seriously? HOW? Do you know how much money that is????” I want you to think about the word “Emergency.”

When there is an emergency, you do what you have to do to get through it, and you worry about how much it costs after the emergency has passed. Think about a bad accident. Someone is badly injured, losing blood, you go to the ER and worry about how that gets paid for later. The most important thing is to preserve life, stop the bleeding, repair the damage. You deal with the cost later because it is an Emergency. A less immediate example, my husband and I saw this pandemic coming. That is, we started hearing about this weird virus in Wuhan in January and we thought of the H1N1 flu, SARS, etc. As we started to hear it was spreading we thought, huh, I wonder if China will be able to contain this? What if it starts spreading to other countries? As we started to hear it was “all under control” but saw China quarantining cities, provinces etc, quick-building 1,000 bed hospitals, sending folks in HASMAT gear to disinfect the streets… we started to think this virus was definitely going to spread, that is was quite dangerous, and that my husband is pretty vulnerable to it. In case this became an emergency I more than doubled my grocery budget. This is not something we could afford. It ate away at our savings quite quickly and that made me feel uneasy, of course, but I told myself if we ended up sticking things out at home I’d be glad I’d done it. If the virus hadn’t come here then we could always just eat the food, use the daily supplies, and cut our food budget in the future as we did so. Our government should be bending over backwards to protect the lives of its citizens. Our lives should be the first priority and money should be something we worry about later. Yep, the bill will come due and we will have to deal with it, but the alternative is utterly unthinkable.

Mother Issues (etc.)

74 days of isolation and all is well at our house… or at least relatively so. We are all covid free as far as we know, all still at home, still able to get food and water. We are very lucky.

We’re still gaming a lot. Preparing to add more games and more players to the mix going forward. Lots of fun to be had there. We’re preparing to face decisions about going back to physical workspaces relatively soon as the state opens up. My Director just mentioned having the library actually open in some fashion by mid June. Color me terrified/skeptical. If we open and the spike in cases comes later I am naturally extremely reluctant to be exposed to this monstrous disease or have my vulnerable family members exposed, at the same time I doubt/hope it won’t happen that we won’t open then because the spike comes in time for us to change course on that. If I just babbled some kind of incoherent nonsense, I apologize, my focus has been suffering lately.

Last night, as I was gaming with some distant friends, my sister started texting me about how our mother has been ripping her down about her adorable little craft business. WTF? I have so many objections to this treatment of my sister. #1. Who does that? Who wants to just rip someone down over their art that they enjoy? It is so the worst sort of Jr. High viciousness #2. Who does that to their own daughter??? #3. WHY??????? WTF???? Ok, I have a pretty good idea wtf: jealousy. Our mother started behaving in a competitive manner toward us as soon as each of us approached puberty. When we started looking like attractive young ladies she clearly freaked out internally and started treating us like crap. (In new and exciting ways she hadn’t tried before!) If we, as teenagers, dressed attractively, wore any makeup, talked to or about boys, etc etc. she would call us “whores” and other choice words, accuse us of sleeping around, restrict the hell out of us, etc. I remember her flirting with boys we brought around, putting us down as we were just not as good as her, as popular as her etc. It was ridiculous. So, my sister is better educated than our mother, has more money and success and that sort of thing, which is not my sister’s focus but is probably why our mother is digging at her.

See, the thing is, my mother and her husband run a successful online business that has supported them for more than several years. They ship worldwide, they have a showroom that people occasionally come and peruse, (not often, it isn’t really public) but they sell tons online, more so now in the pandemic because those who can still afford to shop are doing it online. So my sister, who has a great job already at like a company, started making these terrific crafts and a local place or two near her started selling some, and she made so many she started selling them online. She did it more or less on a lark, maybe as a little experiment. She loves making these things, they are lovely, so she put them out there. Knowing she can afford to do this experiment who wouldn’t be encouraging of her hobby/business? That’s right! Our mother. My sister can’t say anything about her little fledgling business without our mother shitting all over it and bragging about how much money her business makes…. and our mother asks and asks about it so she can get her digs in! If my sister responds with any kind of ‘hey, wtf, don’t pick on me’ all of a sudden mother dearest cannot understand WHY Sis is so upset or angry? “why are you mad at me?” So Sis needed to vent, needed a little TLC from someone else who regularly receives such bullshit abuse and understands the horrible bind one is in when being tortured by a narcissist.

Sis? 100%: I feel ya! We got through our childhood alive. We somehow all grew up and eventually chose good, loving husbands. We managed to raise kids who are all wonderful in their unique ways and we LOVE OUR KIDS and SUPPORT them. We are fucking superheroes! We have grown kids, almost grown kids, and a few younger kids, and all of them are good, kind people who still love us. With any luck they will bitch in their like spaceship voice logs or whatever about how we moms all bother them with space-care packages too much, or how we sometimes interfere with grandkid’s homework because we want to talk to them every day. But they will never, Never have to rant to each other or cousin to cousin about how we tear them down, insult them, manipulate them, or make them feel like shit. Our kids won’t have that to deal with because we are goddamn amazing phoenixes rising from the ashes and ruin we were subjected to, and we have all fought hard to be good moms and we have succeeded. I don’t know, maybe our mother is jealous of that? Jealous of the happiness we have each found in so many ways so she wants to damage it, drag us down, make us as miserable as she is? Whatever her damn issues are, they are not ours, and I’ve got your back. Bitch to me whenever you need to. I get it, girl, I hear you.

CAUTION: RANTING AHEAD

Okay, I’m going to vent, you’ve been warned.

I have 3 non-neuro-typical kids ages 17-26. All of them still live at home and are not fully functioning adults at this time. All 3 suffer from depression, 2 from anxiety, all 3 have other issues as well. The older 2 kids are my kids and my husband’s step-kids which adds a little something to the mix. My husband has a good job that keeps a roof over our heads, food on the table, etc. etc. I work part time.

My eldest works part time and studies a computer book toward a certification… hopefully. Eldest drives and deals with her car insurance and oil changes and stuff. She helps around the house doing dishes, vacuuming, pet care. She spends some of her time writing what I think she describes as fanfic. Her writing, and the response she gets to it, give her a boost of self-esteem. I’m in favor of that.

Middle child goes to a local community college studying for an English degree at this time. (it changes sometimes) The only work she’s ever been able to get is work study at the college. She probably comes close to paying us back each semester for her classes, books etc. but that’s it. She paints gaming miniatures for money whenever she can. Work there is very sporadic. She’s good at it but it’s super niche’ and a luxury few can afford. She mowed the lawn roughly 1x/week for $20/week this summer. We support her financially, obviously. She has been trying to learn to drive for years but is in no way ready to be driving on her own. Honestly, she’s bad at it. Autism in her case means not being able to process everything and make good decisions quickly. I wish my husband would give up on it, it seems like something she shouldn’t do, but we live in a rural area and she either drives, gets us to drive her, or moves to a city with great public transport which is slightly complicated by her not being able to get a job or manage her life.

Youngest is 17. He’s doing pretty well so far this year even though his 2 best friends both moved on to different schools. He seems to be making other friends and is doing ok in his classes. He’s got an adulting class which makes him anxious because he hates thinking of the future, not sure WTF to do about that. I tell him there’s no pressure on him, just calmly look at all the options and think about what he’d like to explore, nothing carved in stone, no scary deadline, and so on. I’m working with him trying to get him to manage his daily life better. He needs to get up on time in the morning, which means getting to sleep at a reasonable hour, needs to learn to keep up with cleaning his room, doing his laundry and so on. He is interested in learning to cook to the point where he can keep himself happily fed, so we work on that. He’s great at coming up with marinades and he handles all of that, he’s learning to make certain dishes and to BBQ a bit. He handles most of the dog care. He doesn’t drive yet, doesn’t have a permit. He seemed like he wanted to but backed off for some reason.

So, they are all behind where they “should” be, where most kids are at their ages, we focus on encouraging them, trying to add to their responsibilities, being supportive. It’s a struggle, it’s frustrating, it’s hard not to despair sometimes. It super doesn’t help that my husband is surrounded by high achieving kids at work, constantly bombarded by beaming parents boasting about their amazing offspring. It’s demoralizing for him and it makes him more frustrated with the kids than he might be otherwise. For myself I could stand not to have my mother constantly tell me how awesome a job my sisters did at parenting, how great their kids are and how she worries so much about mine. STFU MOM! NOT helping! I have 2 sisters, we each ended up having 3 kids, one sister has 3 neurotypical kids, the other has 2 NT and one who isn’t. Would you look at the one non-neurotypical kid? Wow, he’s doing so great. He is, he’s doing great and I am over the moon that he is. I love him. What I can’t take one more freaking second of is the idea that I somehow failed my kids, which my mother CLEARLY believes and likes to rub in my face.

It isn’t fair at all to compare my sister and I and blame my parenting for the fact that my kids aren’t burning up the sky like all parents wish for their kids. My sister had so much help that I never got. Her in-laws were very involved and often took the kids for a weekend or a week, they babysat, they helped with expenses, they got involved in the kid’s lives in real ways. During her last pregnancy, our actual father moved to live in her state, in her town, and started helping too. His parents followed him out there and lent their support. My sister is smart and fairly driven, she got a degree and a a good job and had the built in support to be able to work while other people helped out with driving and watching the kids as needed. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of her, she did amazing, but if I had the kind of support she did I might be amazing too. We will never know. With her husbands very good job and all the support they have been able to afford everything they have needed for their kids. Nothing has really been out of reach for them, which is so cool, I really am happy for them. I love my sis, her hubby and their kids. I can’t tell you how proud I am of them. I just don’t need to hear it so, so, so often. Because….

I live very near my mom. She did not babysit. She helped with rides, which I am grateful for, but we paid for those rides with the stress of dealing with her. She could not deal with the difficulties that come with dealing with my kids, my eldest was a handful when she was younger, and my mother made it worse by setting her off, blaming me for not handling her correctly, etc. I was so stuck. She was the only one I had to help at all and it came at such a cost. She helped financially at times, always with the understanding she would be paid back in full, which we did though it was difficult. My husband’s family was useless in helping with the kids. They didn’t care to be involved with the older 2, though his brothers enjoyed spending time with them on their rare visits. We spent years utterly strapped financially with occasional bouts of being on an even keel. We had my ex to deal with and the insanity of him trying to force the older kids into his religion, then his eventual rejection of the kids as they refused to join. All the work has been on us, we are exhausted, we are demoralized and we wish like hell we knew what to do.

But this is where we are. We have 3 grown and almost grown kids who are not where they should be with life goals, accomplishments and mental health. We have loved and loved and loved these kids and done our best with what we’ve had to work with. We had therapists, doctors, and we did what we could to expose them to interests but we couldn’t afford much. We’re still trying, we’re still working hard while most people with kids the same ages as ours are now able to brag about their kid’s accomplishments we get to answer “how are the kids?” with; “They’re doing ok. Eldest is working part time, middle is in school part time, and youngest is in HS… no the younger ones aren’t driving yet, no they don’t have jobs….” Progress is glacial.

Please, if you have amazing, neuro-typical kids who are doing wonderful, I know you want to brag, and I get it, I am truly happy for you, but please try to remember that some of your friends and family have kids who are not neuro-typical or have other challenges, and though they LOVE your kids and are happy for you, hearing about all the wonderful milestones your kids breeze through can be really painful. It is heartbreaking to work so hard, invest so much love and support, watch the slow, painful progress, and when you feel some small germ of hope because a friend was tentatively made, or a kid is finally taking 3/4 of a full schedule of classes, or at last broke 30 hours/week at their part time job… to hear that someone else’s kid has 20 friends and they are all going to do charity work together in a foreign land, or they just graduated, got their masters with a 4.0, or landed an awesome fortune 500 level job. etc etc.

I don’t know what my kids might accomplish, they are bright, sweet, amazing people. They aren’t where most people their ages are, they don’t have it all together yet, or even mostly together, they can’t even fake it, really. But they are kind and creative and I am proud of them. It just feels really awful when someone asks how the kids are and I say, “well, middle child joined the history club at community college, so that’s encouraging.” and they answer with, “Oh, this other kid just got accepted at 6 ivy league schools and has to choose which one to go to now. ” I know they don’t mean to make me feel terrible but I do. My kid did a tiny thing, their’s did a huge thing. I feel like my kid’s accomplishments don’t matter, it will never be enough, it’s all some kind of competition.

Ok, I’m done. I don’t know if I feel any better, but I’m done.