This weekend my five-year-old son lost his first tooth. Continuing with the theme in our family that we do not lie, the tooth fairy did not visit our house.
It can be very hard to be kind to a child who continually pushes our buttons. I know; I just spent the last two hours trying to calm myself when my youngest son woke me up early then proceeded to throw things, hit me, not eat the cereal we fought about making for half an hour, and disagree with everything I said.
One of the most liked comments on my facebook page was, "Wow. Three-year-olds can be crazy making."
You can only imagine my excitement when I heard I would be attending Oprah's Lifeclass in Chicago!!
A few weeks earlier, I had received an email from a fellow psychotherapist named Marianne living in British Columbia. Having sent her a review copy of my novel STRIPPED DOWN RUNNING, she sent me a message with her glowing reviewing, remarking, "I'm going to Oprah in January, I hope to be able to give her this copy of your book."
I replied jokingly, "Oprah! That's awesome. I wish I could come with you."
When my first son was born, I stared at him in awe thinking okay maternal instincts, you can kick in now. But as months went by, I was sad with the realization I would rather be away from him more than with him. As a psychotherapist, this felt like an extra stab because I was struggling and had the training to help myself—but that didn't seem to be kicking in either.