I have gone back and forth on whether to keep writing so many times over the past year or more, and the answer was always the same for me. Who would want to know about how you’re feeling?
For a long time, it stopped me in my tracks because if I couldn’t get my family to read my posts, how could I get strangers interested? But something shifted in the past few months. A realisation that there may be just one or even two people that benefit from what I have to say, so why not continue to write?
Much has happened since my very last post. Leni has started high school, Jack is now in year 11, about to begin year 12, and I am well and truly in the throes of menopause.
We are almost 10 months into the year, and it hasn’t been the 2026 my astrology charts promised, but do they ever get it right? It’s been challenging, confronting, and in some ways a release of the old to make way for the new.
The challenges of managing a developing teen with ADHD continue to be one of the hardest things about this year so far. An almost 13-year-old going through puberty has not been an easy feat, and along with that, unfortunately, we have also had to deal with bullying, which has made the transition into high school even harder.
It isn’t easy watching your child make and lose friends, or having to face the bullying day in and out as we have had to bear witness to. As a parent, it is even harder to know how to handle everything without making things worse for him.
We are currently navigating all of that along with big feelings and emotions that are already hard enough alone with ADHD.
Do we change schools? Can he change classes? Questions we ask every day, but the answers are never simple. He does not want to change schools, and can we guarantee it won’t happen at a new school? No. You would think that changing class would make the most sense, but apparently, it’s an admin nightmare for the school, so they would rather see if things settle down.
In the meantime, we have to keep testing Lenis’s resilience to it all and waiting to see if by the end of each day things are any better. It’s f*cked, for want of a better term.
Alongside that, I’ve been managing my own big feelings over losing my father to dementia. No, he hasn’t passed, but he is slipping away to a disease that I would not wish on my worst enemy.
He has become a shell of the man I knew, and watching the decline has been one of the hardest things to wrap my head around. Up until recently, I thought I was managing everything quite well, but after seeing him in hospital a few weeks ago, the reality of how bad things are was a startling reminder that life can change in an instant.
I will unwrap those feelings more in coming blogs, but for now I’m still trying to come to terms with it all, so don’t quite feel ready to share how much this has affected me.
I can tell you with my hand on my heart though how lucky I am to have some amazing girlfriends, sisters, and close family around me who listen to me, lift me up, and hold me when everything gets to be too much.
Those friendships are what make it easier for me to get through the day and to find the strength I need to keep going. They are also the reason that there have been lots of laughs along with tears throughout the year, and the reason I will continue to share my journey.
Until next time……
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