I Am Afraid To Let Go

What will happen to my son when he turns 18?

What will he do after he gets out of school?

I am the only person that can care for him the way he needs to be.

I don't trust anyone else to keep my son safe.

How will they know what he needs?

What if he gets scared?

What if I get scared?

Why can't I let go?

These are just some of the things I have heard over the years from other parents and even some of my thoughts too.

It is scary to think of the future sometimes let's be honest here.

I know most of us parents worry about our kids if something ever happened to us- who would care for them?

Well the time is now. The time is now to plan on what you will do when school is over. If you wait until their final year in school that is too late. We are always working on skills daily, but yet we also have to work daily on their future plans too. I know, I know it is a whole lot to tackle but we can do it!

We can organize our schedules like we teach our kids.

We can plan out our ways to get the life skills training, social skills trainings, and communication/behavioral training in somehow. Whew!

We can do all of this while still taking care the rest of the families needs.

We can ask for help.

We can ask for a break.

We can breathe in and out.

We can take it one day at a time.

At some point even if they have to always be with us we can work on letting go.

We can work on them not needing us anymore for their daily needs.

We can work on them not needing us for their social life and being their only friend.

We can work on them not needing our financial help for daily living.

We can work on them being proud of having goals to live and work on their own.

I am afraid to let go, but that won't help my son. I can be the thing that gets in the way the most of him not being on his own.

I can also be the one that pushes him to excel the most.

I can be his biggest encourager to achieve greatness and independence.

I can be proud of my son for every moment of progress he makes each day.

I can let go.

I can.

Just as our kids make progress we need to do the same - make progress of helping them daily and letting go a little each day.

How can you do this today?