Unfortunately, I’ve heard too many stories lately of a parent of young children dying unexpectedly. It breaks my heart, but it also reminds me of one of the best resources that was available to me and is still available!
I’ve talked about the Children’s Room before because it’s near and dear to my heart. Back in 2013 and 2014, I ran the marathon for the organization in memory of my dear friend’s children. I never could have imagined, just two years later, I’d need their grief support services.
The Children’s Room mission is to create safe, supportive communities so that no child, teen, or family has to grieve alone.
Peer Support Groups
They’re best known for their peer support groups, which provide simultaneous support for children, teens, and adults who have experienced the death of an immediate family member. While I know many people who’ve participated in these groups, it wasn’t a good option for my family.
Consultations
The service I can’t recommend enough is their consultations. Just three weeks after Mike died, my sister, my sister in-law, and I met with a Children’s Room grief counselor. She was amazing, providing us with specific tools and strategies for coping with our loss. She focused a lot on helping my kids, which was invaluable to us, but there was one thing she said that changed everything for me.
She said, “research has shown one of the only indicators of how children will do after losing a parent depends directly on how the surviving parent is coping.”
That’s all I needed to hear. That day I made a decision that I was going to do everything in my power to engage in self-care and find successful coping strategies so my kids would be OK.
Parenting While Grieving Series
About a year later, I attended the parenting while grieving series. This eight-week educational series is for parents who are parenting children and teens who have had a parent die. While it’s not a support group per se, it was the first time I felt as if everyone in the room knew exactly what I was going through. While our situations were all very different, at the end of the day, our spouse had died and we were left to parent our children who suffered an enormous loss at very young ages. This series was a blessing.
Please reach out if you know someone who could use the Children’s Room and would like to talk more about their programs.
Last week one bag went out to a woman who lost her mom. We hope our bag gives her an emotional boost and brightens her day!
Thanks for supporting The MRP Project. Together, we’re making a difference by providing hope through social support.