Life Lately
Hi friends! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and that your year is off to a beautiful start.
Usually when I'm away on break I am flooded with ideas to share upon my return, but for the first time ever, that isn't the case. To be honest I am having a bout of bloggers block, and the more I've tried just get over it the more it persists. I'm hoping that just the acknowledgment of it and what life has been like for me over the past few weeks will clear things up, and I'll be back on track again soon. But until that happens, I apologize if posts here are a little sparse or a bit more on the nitty-gritty and not the pretty-pretty side that I'm sure most of us would prefer. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
So I left you back in December with a hasty mention of a "family crisis," and while I won't go into every detail for the sake of privacy, I do want to share a little bit with you about what has been going on.
To keep it brief…my daughter was once again the target of bullying. Unfortunately this time it was far more serious and came very close to having deadly repercussions. This time around social media was used to spread the pain far more quickly and involve many more people than "traditional" bullying that she's dealt with in the past. Being a teenager is difficult enough, and my daughter and I were already working on building up her self-esteem and facing her struggles with depression when this whole thing exploded. It seemed like things went from day to night in a split second. A former trusted friend of my daughter's created rumors to infest the internet with, they caught like wildfire, and my daughter's mental health plummeted.
The details of what happened are all very personal and painful, so I won't elaborate on the specifics more right now other than to say that I have never been more terrified in my entire life. I thought that dealing with my own past depression would be the worst thing I would ever have to deal with, but I was so horribly wrong. Facing and trying to figure out how to help a loved one survive it is so much worse.
I've been too busy worrying about my daughter (and not sleeping much either) to think of much else (hense the lack of cheery blog posts). The initial crisis has thankfully subsided (we've been doing a lot of things to distract away from the situation - see photo above), but the effects of what happened won't be so easily erased. Since the main perpetrators involved were the only friends my daughter felt safe with at her school (and I've since learned even more (sadistic) traits about one of those students that leaves me feeling that my daughter would not ever be safe around them), I have made the difficult decision (and she has begged me) to not send her back to her school. My daughter's mental health and safety needs will always trump any scholastic ones.
Now that the immediate crisis has been contained to a manageable level we have begun making plans for what the future will look like. A lot of it is unknown. For the time being my daughter will be schooling at home with me. I was home schooled quite a bit during my formative years, and while it wasn't always the best solution for me, and may not be for my daughter (that is yet to be determined)…at least I know that she will be safe. To fill the remainder of the year, I've started looking into online programs and in-person tutoring options as well, so if any of you have recommendations (or places I should steer clear of) I would greatly appreciate anything you have to share.
A few weeks out of this crisis I am feeling anxious but tentatively hopeful. I am trying not blame myself…it's always so easy to find blame in oneself if you start to look for it. I keep asking myself, why my kid? Why is she so often the victim of bullying? Is it me? Am I doing something wrong? The questions keep coming with few answers…so I am trying not to ask them. I am instead trying to focus on the positive and keep moving forward in a direction that is healthy for both my daughter and myself. It won't be simple or easy, but I know it's the right thing.
If you made it to the bottom of this post, thank you for reading. I promise to be back to sharing more traditional Creature Comforts content soon. Until then...xox Ez
P.S. The photo above was taken by my daughter during the distractionary (that's a word, right) road trip we took to Dallas, TX a little over a week ago. It captures us at our goofy best, makes me feel hopeful, and might be my favorite photo of all time (regardless of how dorky I look).
Monday, January 7, 2013 
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