ELPIDA Course - English

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Children’s growing up signifies an enormous change for the parents, too.

Children with disabilities usually have taken up a lot of space in family life. Therefore, it is even more important to find a new perspective after the children move out. To mourn about the past and to hinder changes do not help.

Especially mothers who have been occupied with the education of their children for a long time and thus haven’t been able to have a paid job, have difficulties to return to employment. They suffer more often from modified family situation than those in employment.[16]

You will find some helpful items below:

• Allow yourself to have space for your feelings. Take a day off, don’t cover your urgent problems and sorrows with jobs, but engage with them actively[17] 

• Everything changes in life, so that people have the chance to grow. As parents, you need a firm self-consciousness 
  
• Within your individual resources, you can find health, problem-solving skills, a basic optimism, humour, self-consciousness, emotional stability and many more. It is an important support for you to be aware of your powers[18] 
  
• It is equally important to have contact with the supporters taking over care. With growing confidence in them,  detachment becomes easier. 
  
• It is good to restart unattended activities in order to fill your time 
  
• Exchange with other parents, similar experiences often help. In difficult situations, a common concern can help you to orientate, to look forward and it has a stabilizing function“.[19] 
  
• Take the chance to have expert supervision to “receive professional support for problems and their potential solution, or to speak with persons not directly involved in the situation and therefore able to have an objective view on the correlations“.[20] 
  
• Every person has a right to leisure time and their own activities. Bad conscience about it is unfunded. 
  
• Be aware of your own limits. In case of ongoing depression it helps to consult a competent therapists, so accept support when necessary.[21] 
  
• Take a look at the Checklist for vocational preparation.