Pregnancy or infant loss is one of the worst experiences a mother can go through. Death, combined with what is typically a positive, joyous occasion, propels a mother and father into a state of shock and despair while their friends and family often struggle to know what to do and what to say. There are few words; and even the words you do find never seem to be enough or appropriate.
When my daughter wakes up in the morning and gets out of bed, a small ruckus of howls, barks and a tap dance of doggy toenails on linoleum begin downstairs. If you ask Samantha about it, she smiles knowingly to herself. Her dogs, Daisy and Izzy, are over the moon to greet her every morning. This type of unconditional love is what most parents are after when we imagine what it might be like to introduce a pet into our home. Just don’t expect this type of happy harmony to happen overnight.
A mother and father with two toddlers sit ever so quietly in a nice restaurant. No fussing, no whining. It all seems so serene... Look more carefully and you notice the youngsters with their heads down, immersed in their tablets. So what exactly is the problem here?
One of my sweetest parenting experiences was a one-time unique participation in my teenage daughter’s clique. We mothers of this group of adolescent girlfriends planned a surprise dinner out for our girls at a restaurant where we ate and celebrated our daughters. After dessert, we presented them with blue T-shirts that read, “I Survived Dinner With My Mother.” On that special night, it was fun to again feel like part of a clique, and it brought back sweet memories of belonging to a special group of friends ‘in my day.’
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