Today is my 33rd Birthday, and I made a 12 year old cry...

[MarianJack]

14. I'm sorry that this happened to that child.

As the father of a 12 year old boy whom we adopted as an infant, we know that that age can be a real pain in the rump. However, as much as we want to knock him on his arse quite frequently, his safety and wellbeing are penultimate to us!

We have thought of bringing a foster child into our home when we ge into a house. Of course, we have to consider him first and include him in the discussion and decision of doing this. It's so sad that people don't realize that a child is too precious to not give the best care and nurturing.

Please accept my best wishes for happiness in your new job even though I know (as a survivor of 20+ year in the Human Services) there will be days that are hard as hell, like today. Please believe that you WILL make a difference and it will be overwhelmingly a positive one. I don't want to sound like a heartless bastard, but you'll eventually have to learn how to keep your sanity by learning how to forget that the job exists once you go home every night and not think about it until the next morning. It sounds hard but that's how I survived.

Also, in all modesty, I was a hell of a practitioner and a hell of a supervisor/mentor for about 2/3 of my career.

Hang in there, you'll do great. I've read enough of your posts over the last few years to know that you have the requisite heart for this!

Happy Birthday and...

...PEACE!