I haven't blogged regularly since college; and from the beginning of this blog, it's obvious that I intended to chronicle my adoptive parenting journey in blog form. For those of you who were moms before me--I know you are laughing with me and not at me. Regardless of adoption or birth, infants or older children, becoming a mother produces quite a shift in your psyche.
Adjusting to this new role has changed me. It has made me filter everything I believed before through a new lens. And while I have not necessarily changed a lot of what I believe, my view has broadened and my understanding is greater. I just process the world differently.
So the blog name--Shrink Mom. My kids have the _____________ of growing with a counselor for a mom. (I'm not sure how to fill in that blank...blessing? unfortunate experience? oddity?) When they realized what I did for a living, my daughter shouted from the bathroom, "B!! We have a counselor for a mom and a regular dad!" It was a funny day in our house, but the irregular experience of a counselor as a mom is one that will both benefit and challenge my kids. As adjunct faculty at a university, I use stories about my kids to illustrate points of human behavior (especially in terms of human growth and development and learning). When I related that story, one of my students said, "So you're a Shrink Mom." I kind of liked it. While shrink has carried a negative connotation in the past, I appreciate the grounded feel of the term. Using counselor or therapist sometimes gives the connotation of an expert--and as a mom, I'm just not that.
So I will be posting and chronicling my thoughts and experiences as a counselor and a mom--of parenting, the world, and whatever else strikes me as relevant. Most of it will be in light of my training as a counselor and how I filter that as a person responsible for the shaping of two future adults. I hope for it to serve in a journal type sense for my growth as a person.
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