Bringing it Home

Ok, so you try your best not to bring work home, right? But in different ways it follows you regardless..


My Speech. We spend our days saying repetitive and kind of odd things.. often in threes.. Mind you, moving and talking go together in baby development, so lots of the kids we see for motor delays have speech delays.. so we are mindful of their speech goals while we're playing with them..

"Up, up, up" Down, down, down.
"Ready. Setttttt.... GO!" (can't count the times we say this each day)
Doggie... woof woof... Kitty... meowwww... meowww....
"Cow... mooooooooo!"
"One, two, three!"

"Push! Push it in. Go pushhhhh"
"Yel-low" "Purr-pllll" "Blue. It's blue"
"You can do it!" "You're ok" "Keep trying!"
"Wiggle wiggle" (when the puzzle piece doesn't fit right yet)
"Turn, turn, turn"
X is allllllll done. Time to do Y....
First this... then that...
"da da da da da... ma ma ma ma...." (trying to get babies to imitate)
All done!... Clean up... Bye bye.

You get the point.. anyways, I find myself talking to my dogs like this now.. or catching myself almost talking to the dogs like this. Your walk is alllll done. Time to go in. All done barking... Eww.. And when I play with kids on my own time, now I'm more vocal like this, labeling everything.. it's annoying..



Mind Set On Replay. Even when I have an eventful evening or weekend, off living my own life, it's like these clients are slowly but surely in the back of your mind. People's parenting styles remind me of a client's parent. You reflect on the way an interaction went with a parent and wonder what you can do differently next time. You pray for the client's sick family members and coworkers who had a hard week. You start finding small ways you can relate to the pain or excitement or struggle in these family's lives with something from your own life. You wonder about new treatment ideas.. new toys, games, research... you wonder often if you're missing something important about a kid..


Mirror Mirror On The Wall.

As someone I work with put it, when you are in a helping profession, you have the intention of focusing on others, but somehow the mirror gets turned back on you! Lots of self-reflection and observing my own body and mind reactions. What do I mean? Ok, so the toddler is cranky, tired, or denied something. The toddler is upset, which in some cases sets mom off. Which may set off a sibling. What is my body's response to this? We need at least one calm person in the room! Otherwise I'm not helping. But I'm a human too and certain adult and child behaviors trigger me. So it's a process of becoming aware that I'm losing my patience, or I'm tensing up or making a face and coming back into control of myself. Kids feed off of other's vibes. So how I respond can be really crucial to fanning the flames or simmering them down.


And in other ways the mirror stares me in the face - when we have a no-show or the parent does things that we've talked on many occasions about not doing, or it seems like we're not getting the whole story... I must face my own beliefs, ideals, judgments, criticisms, and reactions...  not always pretty. And again, it comes back to "Am I helping?" Having an attitude against how someone runs their life will not help -- searching for positives, celebrating little victories, and partnering with them to help their child is the goal. I'm not a parent. I'm not the parent of any of these children. I'm not with them day in and day out. And I must appreciate that these parents show up - everyday - and they do their best. It helps to remember that. So let me show up every day, and do my best.

(Farm puzzle if from https://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Wooden-Chunky-Puzzle/dp/B000E9DPCW. All else is copyright free from Pixabay.)