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A not-so-traditional Thanksgiving

November 24, 2020 By 3cfs_Admin

By: Melanie McCabe, PhD
Mother and child at home. Video chat. Social distance.

The holidays are coming. Instead of joy you feel sad, worried, angry, or a mix of those. You might not even feel anything at all. It makes sense!

Here we are, months into a pandemic and we are still learning what the new normal is for us all. The new normal shifts every few weeks. I have spoken with families from all walks of life and three things are common to them all. They want this to end, they are suffering, and they want a taste of normalcy.

We are all hurting and the reasons may be different for all of us. Some have lost stability, others have lost community, all of us have lost whatever normalcy was a year ago. We are all experiencing a sense of grief over the normalcy we’ve lost, and we are all in various stages of grief. Other events that cause grief have a socially acceptable way of responding. We may attend a funeral if someone passes, call a best friend and eat ice cream while talking junk about an ex, or talk to someone about the pet we’ve lost. Most forms of coping with grief involve community and connecting with others. The grief we face this year is that we can’t connect with others in the ways we used to. This grief may be the hardest for some during the holidays when we would typically gather with family and friends.

Holidays typically come along with their own traditions. These traditions are solidified and gain value by repeating them with others. This year, we may lack the others. In the coming weeks and months, we will all be facing Thanksgiving and other winter holidays in a new way. Alone, without the same sense of community we are accustomed to. Even writing it seems foreign to me. The impacts will be felt due to local mandates, doctors’ recommendations, your own decisions, or the choices of family and/or friends. If in reading this you feel your pulse quickening, heart sinking, a pit in your stomach, or wanting to step away from your screen, you are not alone. The thought is a tough one.

Typically, during winter gatherings, we set aside our differences about politics and football teams and look forward to coming together to eat some traditional food and enjoy our long-established traditions. This year we might not. If we are gathering, it may be with new expectations, or without some of the folks we love, perhaps even the folks that helped us create these traditions.

In years past, in awkward family gatherings, we could stuff our faces with pie, enjoy watching a parade, and make small talk to get through a tough situation at a family function. This year, we may not. The community that is part of our traditional experience will be altered. Not having what is near and dear to us leads to some level of grief. This is normal and expected. We can begin to move on and heal in doing what we know to do in a situation. Just like the ice cream after a breakup, the friend who calls you to insult your favorite team’s loss, the funeral after the passing of a loved one. If left with nothing but the void of what is missing, we will feel our sadness more intensely. This year, we are left with a question: what do we do when we can’t rely on the usual community of holidays? How do you grieve when you can’t access traditional supports? Well, this year is not a traditional year. There are no traditional answers. There are many questions and non-traditional answers. Here are some of the answers we found within our own 3-C family. If you have others, please send them along to info@3cfs.com. I will add them to the blog in a few weeks so others may benefit, as well.

“For Thanksgiving, I will be staying at home with my family of four, and the kids’ grandparents are coming over. They have restricted themselves, and for all intents and purposes we live in the same household, yet we sleep in separate homes. We will cook together and started baking treats a week before the holiday. After the scaled-down dinner, we will be host a socially distanced outdoor gingerbread house competition with the other family members. I am hoping for some nice warm and dry days. Our winter holidays are not complete without supporting local families in need. This year, rather than tackling the mall in the holiday season with family members from other households, we will do our shopping virtually. We will send the gifts to the organizing group per their own requirements. We’ve never Zoom-shopped electronically, and yet this year we will hopefully give it a go.” – Melanie McCabe, PhD

“Thanksgiving: Staying home with immediate family only. Will have a dinner and decorate oversized pinecones as turkeys. Christmas: Staying home with immediate family. My parents live with us during the winter months and will likely stay through Christmas (fingers crossed!!). We will have Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day brunch, open presents, and make a birthday cake for Jesus!” – Meagan Knowles, PhD

“Thanksgiving: Dave and I will be staying home and cooking all of our favorite sides since I can’t have Turkey. I am sure we will walk our dogs, go visit my horse, and start decorating for Christmas. We will talk with all of Dave’s family back in Kansas via telephone and watch a lot of football.” – Kat North, MS

“My husband and I are staying home for the holidays. We have generated a special menu with all of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes, including several types of mashed potatoes. We will be participating in scheduled virtual gatherings with all of our family members. Technically, this will be the first holiday that we celebrate with both of our families, as our families live across the US and in Europe, and we typically have to make difficult decisions about where we go each year.” – Other

“Spending the week with two friends at a mountain home in VA. On Thanksgiving: early AM hike on the Appalachian Trail, church service at 10, making lasagna for dinner. Lots of relaxing and NO TV!” – Lori Schweickert, MD

“My plans are to stay home with my significant other, cook good food together, watch movies, play games, and Zoom with our families.” – Katherine Bracken, PhD

Filed Under: Anxiety, Children, Stress, Tips for Parents

Unmotivated child? We might be able to help.

February 24, 2020 By 3cfs_Admin

Upset African American preschooler girl looking in distance

In many of my first meetings with parents, I am likely to hear the phrase, “Nothing motivates my child.” Parents sometimes feel there is nothing that they can use to motivate their child to do the things that they want them to do. This is a source of frustration for the parents. This is the case for most families that I work with, with kiddos from age 5 through college age. Some of the things parents want me to help motivate their children to do include things such as brushing their teeth, using manners, doing homework, going to school regularly or applying for college, and so much more.

One thing many of these families have in common is satiation. Satiation is the state of having a want met and therefore no longer wanting that thing. As parents, many of us have the ability to satisfy our children’s wants on a regular basis. We do so by buying them the clothing items they want, taking them to movies when they want to go see the new release, buying them cell phones or devices, and saying “yes” on a regular basis to the other things in life. We may even anticipate their wants and meet them before the child is aware of the want. An example is me buying my daughters a T-shirt with their favorite movie character. We do so out of love and out of caring. This desire to meet our children’s wants can bite us right in the rear in the long run. In giving our children all of the things they want, we may be making the parenting gig harder than it needs to be.

Now I know some children do not need the external “carrot” to get them to do the thing parents want them to do; however, not all children have this internal motivation. If you have a child that wants to do all the things you want them to do, all of the time, high five! You can stop reading here, or read along for the sake of your friends and family—they might need a pep talk about how normal it is for a child to need motivation from the world around them. For everyone else who stuck with me this far, most children actually do not have the internal drive to do all of the things that we as parents want them to do. They don’t.

If you feel like your child is hard to motivate and you feel like you’ve tried it all, it may be time to set up a consult with one of our parenting supports here at 3-C Family Services to see if we can help you nail down some different approaches. We will talk about a balanced approach that will let you continue to meet your wants of providing for your child and will not include withholding any of their needs. They will still feel loved and secure with you! They may actually appreciate the ability to earn their next want. Having the ability to earn something can give children, and adults, a sense of pride.

By: Melanie McCabe, PhD

Wife, mother, therapist.

Filed Under: Children, Mental Health, Tips for Parents

Getting Started With Meditation

April 27, 2016 By 3cfs_Admin

When you think of meditation, you might laugh! It conjures pictures of old white yogis or Buddhist monks with loud, constant chants. The reality is much different.

At its core, meditation is a way of gaining control of processes your body normally does on its own. It’s a way of turning off auto-pilot and re-centering yourself in the moment. While it sounds rather philosophical, the effects are anything but: lowered heart rate, lowered stress level, and better concentration. Naturally, meditation can seriously benefit your mental health.

Meditation’s effect on anxiety depends a lot on its source. However, in combination with therapy, it can be helpful for reducing mental stress. If you want to get started on your own or just try it for fun, here are some helpful tips.

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Filed Under: Mental Health, Tips for Parents Tagged With: Be Patient, Breathing Rhythm, Buddhify, Getting Started With Meditation

How To Maintain a Strong Family

January 5, 2015 By 3cfs_Admin

Children growing up in strong family environments are proven to do better in school, in interactions with others and are typically more successful later in life. A strong family builds self-esteem, confidence, and compassion. In this fast paced and electronic world, maintaining strong family bonds can be difficult, but through several simple actions, you can enhance the family dynamic for years to come.

Here is a list of things you and your family can do to maintain a strong unit:

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Filed Under: Tips for Parents

Talking with Kids About the Hard Stuff

June 19, 2014 By 3cfs_Admin

Most parents try and protect their kids from all of the terrible stuff in life, but since we can’t cut off a child’s access to the Internet or put them into a plastic bubble until they are 18, we have to learn to help them cope with many of life’s challenges, disappointments, and fears.

Death, illness, divorce, and bullying all hit close to home and can be very hard for children. Even events in the news that have no direct bearing on their lives can invade a child’s thoughts and cause them to be overcome with fear and anxiety.

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Filed Under: Children, Tips for Parents Tagged With: emotional children, Talking with Kids About the Hard Stuff, understanding child behavior

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