This past week has been a difficult one because my mother had a severe anxiety attack last weekend. As a family, we have dealt with the fact that she has suffered from depression and anxiety disorder for over thirty years. We are not ashamed of talking about it whatsoever because it is an illness just like any other illness and she has no control over it. As far as we know, it began right after my birth when my mother was eighteen years old. She suffered from postpartum depression after giving birth but was able to recover from it after a few weeks. Unfortunately, four years later after giving birth to my brother, she again sank into a depression but was not able to feel better on her own. This is the way that depression and anxiety presents itself in the lives of many people. It is brought on or awakened by a traumatic or stressful experience in a person's life. In my mother's case, the stress of giving birth to three children in four years, at such a young age, … [Read more...]
Why Didn’t You Listen?
Over the years, those of you who have been following this blog know, that I have discussed my displeasure at the way that some family members were raising their children with regards to monitoring their online and social media activity. More than once, I observed teenage family members discussing and posting provocative or inappropriate topics on social media that prompted me to discuss the issue with their parent. Unfortunately, all of my concerns and warnings always fell on deaf ears. As a matter of fact, it almost seemed like there was resentment over the fact that I had the nerve to get involved in something that they deemed to be none of my business. I'm not even sure how that works because I have always believed in the "it takes a village to raise a child" mentality. There is no way that I could turn a blind eye to dangerous behavior that young people are engaging in, especially if those young people are related to me. Sadly, nobody ever heeded my warnings and … [Read more...]
