One Wee Spark

Okay...so I didn't learn EVERYTHING I know about parenting from watching "Caillou", but you might be surprised how much I did learn from Caillou and Rosie's mom. This morning, while having coffee with a dear friend, we were discussing recovery and change. Neither one of us had ideal parenting roles modeled for us, and we are both painfully aware that because of this, we struggle with parenting our own children. I can't speak for my friend, but I know that a realization has occurred in my own life--I was BOUND to become the same kind of parent that my mother had been, for one simple reason: I knew nothing else. And while I was BOUND to become the same kind of parent, this knowledge also set me free from BEING that kind of parent. Once I realized that I was ill-equipped to be any kind of parent except what I had seen in my childhood, I also realized that I could find a different, healthier model and follow it. For me, that kind of parenting was most often re...

Please forward and tweet this message to all your peeps! (Okay...that lingo doesn't really work for me...but I tried. Give me half credit for trying!) Tonight is the FIRST ever meeting of Adult Children of Hoarders (ACH) Spokane! We're meeting at:   5025 N. Market (in Hillyard) from:    7-8:30pm We will continue to assemble on  the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month. With explicit permission, we will be using the Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) literature until we have had an opportunity to build our own. It is MY hope that the group will be able to support expansion to other cities and states. Be patient. The ACA book is 645 pages...the workbook alone is 150! I can't do it all alone! But we haven't forgotten COH in other areas! If you're a COH in the Spokane/Post Falls/Coeur d'Alene area, I hope you join us tonight!

Growing up in the hoard, I don't remember my mom ever telling me NOT to tell other people what our house looked like. It was just understood by other actions that this wasn't something to be discussed at Sunday School, during classes, or even at family dinners. It was our " dirty little secret ".