Another reason for my recent absence here has been a small crisis with our daughter. Parents face small crises all the time. Sometimes a small crisis goes away on its own. Sometimes a small crisis becomes something huge. Sometimes a crisis needs to be addressed carefully and sometimes it needs to be studiously ignored. There is almost no way to know this until the crisis can be viewed through hindsight.
This isn't our first small crisis nor will it be the last. This, however, was eye-opening for me. I'm a teacher. I'm surrounded by teachers and other educators. As a result, I have access to a wealth of knowledge.
Teachers see small crises all the time. They also see large crises but, fortunately, those come less often. Seeing so many small crises mean that teachers know ways to address them and who else can help.
In this small crisis there were numerous people with whom I work who helped us with strategies to address our daughter's concerns and to point us to others and to help us navigate various possibilities. We have been stressed as we moved forward with this but all the information and support made it so much better.
I'm left now, as we see the light at the end of the tunnel (we think), with great sympathy for parents without this network of resources. I'm left wondering how I can better support my students' families when they are facing small (or large) crises. I think I often forget that most parents don't have the wealth of knowledge all around them that we have.
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