What’s the kindest thing someone has ever done for you?

I had been having a difficult day. The girls had been living with us for a couple years at that point. It was a school day and they both had appointments. The oldest had therapy and the youngest had occupational therapy. I took the oldest to the appointment where I was invited into the session even though it was not a family day for my oldest to blame me for everything wrong with her life. That expecting a twelve year old girl to use the toilet was in impossible ask and that I should buy her diapers. It was completely bizarre and the exact opposite of what the toileting specialist told us to do. The entire ride back to school was her berating me and telling me the therapist agreed with her. Which I am pretty sure is not true.

Then came the youngest’s appointment where I picked her up only to be told she was caught stealing at school. That turned into a whole thing and I understood where the vice principal was coming from. Then I was asked to punish her and I declined. I told her whatever punishment the school gave her would be appropriate. That me punishing my child for something she did at school was not going to help me build any attachment. They understood but still seemed irritated that they would need to actually handle the discipline. Then we were off to the appointment where I tried to move past that interaction and focus on why we had come to occupational therapy. Instead she was dis-regulated the entire appointment and the occupational therapist, to her credit, tried really hard to regulate her. That was one of the reasons she was in occupational therapy. It did not work and then I got to drive her back to school. She was fine once we were back at school and was very sweet while we said goodbye.

I was feeling so run down after all of that and the school receptionist called me over. Just as I was gearing up for another awful interaction, she told me that I was a good mom. That she saw everything I was doing and my youngest was a good kid but a handful. She said I should keep doing what I am doing because she was seeing the positive changes in my child.

It felt so good to be seen for a moment. To be told that they could see I was trying and that it was working. It was not any of the professionals we worked with, it was the receptionist. A woman who saw kids come and go all day long. She told me I was doing good. I went home and ate my lunch. The first time I had eaten that day. I mulled over her words. Someone acknowledged I was trying and it was working. Then it was time to pick the kids up from school.