“Mental health is a universal human right” and protecting my son’s mental health was the catalyst for writing Connor and the Sibling Surprise. Finding out that your dad, with whom you have a distant relationship, is now a father to three additional kids is a lot to process. I worried that he would be hurt by the fact they live with their dad and he doesn’t. I worried that seeing his dad interact with his siblings would bring up feelings of missing out on love and attention. Even though I’ve done my very best to curate the best life for my son, I worried that he would feel a void. My goal was to ensure my baby had time to understand how he felt about the news and most importantly had the time to process.
I’ve worked hard to create a relationship with Cole that enables him to freely express his feelings. We talk every night about his day, about decisions he made and experiences he had. He has a history of mental illness on both sides of his family, so I actively work every day to protect my peace and the peace for my son. Creating a story to prepare him to meet his siblings was the perfect tool as we use books and storytelling to get us through challenging times. His response to the story enabled us to co-create beautiful content that became Connor and the Sibling Surprise.
In addition to stories to explore and express our feelings, a tool we’ve used for quite some time is emotion charts. If Cole is having a tough time expressing himself, I ask him to just point to how he feels. If he struggles with describing the feeling, I ask him what would he say to a friend who was feeling that way. It really helps us so we created a Connor and Friends Emotion Chart that you can use. Please visit www.ConnorBooks.com to get yours today.
Take time today to improve your knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health as a universal human right!
#ConnorBooks #WorldMentalHealthDay #WMHD #WMHD2023 #RaisingBoys #BoyMom #SiblingSurprise #MentalHealth #ProtectingMyPeace
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