Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Sick with Kidz??

For years I talked with others who also have CFS, FMS and/or MCS about the ramifications on our kids. There are so many ways that they are affect right along with us. When we are homebound they can become a bit homebound too, as things like transporting them tend to be a problem. Here's a short list on some of the things I've found or heard or thought about:

  • 1. Kids can be afraid that their sick parent may die. (something they rarely confess until they're grown up).
  • 2. Their friends and friends' parents might tag us as 'lazy' or 'crazy' or 'neglectful', or worse, maybe even 'abusive' and our kids may take those labels as family labels that reject them too.
  • 3. Financial difficulties - Often our kids can't be in many things because of the expense. Being ill doesn't come cheap! Loss of wages plus additional expenses strains most budgets to the max. Extras for the kids are often 'out'. Forget Little League, after school events etc.
  • 4. If our kids start having symptoms themselves and we haul them into a Dr too often the Drs assume we're just projecting our illness onto our kids.
  • 5. The kids may fear they will become ill too.
  • 6. Sick parents can not predict, can not commit in advance, can't promise to be somewhere, do something etc. Some sick parents never see Little Suzie's Christmas programs or Joshua hitting that homerun. Birthday parties?? How?!

These are just a few examples of ways our kids are affected. These don't even scratch the surface of things we run into daily. What do you do with behaviour problems when you can barely sit up for five minutes? What happens when Katie starts sleeping on your sleep cycle?

I have set up a Christian e-list for parents who have CFS, FMS, MCS (or any chronic debilitating illness) who would like to share tips, chat, vent, compare notes and encourage one another. If you're one of those parents or know one go to:

Christian MCS-EI w/Kidz http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CMCS-wkidz/ and join us !

We'd love to have you : )

Zona

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