Off My Chest
RULES:
I am looking for mods!
1. The "good" part of our community means we are pro-empathy and anti-harassment. However, we don't intend to make this a "safe space" where everyone has to be a saint. Sh*t happens, and life is messy. That's why we get things off our chests.
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5. If anyone offers mental, medical, or professional advice here, please remember to take it with a grain of salt. Seek out real professionals if needed.
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This has always been one of my biggest "minor" fears for my kids. Sure death, major sickness, homeless are all up there, but of all the things to just mentally stick with you as you grow up, it's like my top concern.
I can't think of almost anything more devastating to a kid than having a birthday party, inviting all your friends, hyping up the day, prepping while the kids just prances around excited beyond belief, then nobody show up.
Luckily I convinced my kids of other options for birthdays; weekend trips, bigger family only activities, smaller sleepovers. They have almost entirely taken one of the other options.
Well I'll just bring you right down to Earth then and mention that this was after having a brain tumor at age 10. Her friends were there with chirpy, "I hope you feel better" crap but none of them actually showed up for anything - pretty much the polar opposite of the inspring stories where all the kids in the class shave their heads to support the cancer kid. Didn't happen - and she had been super popular before, not the "mean girl" type at all - if anything she's the opposite of that. All I've ever been able to figure is that the kids were just freaked out or something. But yeah, the 16th birthday party was probably one of the LEAST disappointments she's lived through, all things considered. So if you're going to spend energy fearing for your kids, cancer or something similar is really the place to go.