Update, of sorts

[Copabanana]

This is my life, too:

This one took me a long time, and I may not have mastered it stll. The promises, the promises...applying jobs, going to check in to rehab tomorrow, on and on. I was always excited, or at a minimum enthusiastically supportive. It seemed the right way to be, learned from experience with my neurotypical easy kids. But it is exhausting. You husband is right..we celebrate accomplishments with our Difficult Child's, not promises.

And, unfortunately and quite painfully, this too:

I would like to line up all the young women who have contacted me over the years to firmly dress me down for not being there for my good, kind son who needs his mom. They all have a magic insight into his soul that his mom doesn't have. They all see me as cold. They all disappear from his life after a few weeks or months. I want a group picture of them all. em!

That this will be the story my future, I hope:

Now our table is smaller. I try to honor the heartbreak that goes with that, and also to move forward.

Thank you Echo. I love when you return to CD after an absence and wait for you.

 

[Albatross]

SS, it is nice to "see" you here. I have wondered how you and husband were doing. I am sorry your son is doing the "instigate through other people" thing again. Isn't it something, though, that when I first came to this board his main agent was the woman who now has a restraining order against him? The others will find out soon enough. Glad your mom is starting to see the light as well. I hope you have a wonderful lunch with your folks today.

Echo, it is so nice to "see" you again too. Your post was lovely. The part about celebrating accomplishments, not promises, especially rang true for me. I have a particularly hard time around this time of year, and I think you have nailed why it is so hard for me. It is a season of hope, which is always there, but also churns up some degree of bitterness and cynicism that I struggle with.