Self-Care For Parents and Advocating For Your Special Needs Teen With Guest Britney Dent

Episode 36: Self-Care For Parents and Advocating For Your Special Needs Teen With Guest Britney Dent In this episode, we discuss self-care for parents and advocating for you special needs teen. Guest Britney Dent started off as a social worker and teacher. When she started staying home to take care of her children, she chose to start a coaching business for teens and their parents. Self-care is so important to parents. If we don't take good care of ourselves, we won't feel well and it will impact how we are able to take care of our children. Self-care often falls by the wayside due to lack of time, guilt over taking time for ourselves, having other priorities, and traditions. Some ways to do self-care include exercise, listening to music, or taking a nap. Britney started the 260 movement, meaning finding the time to enjoy with your children and also to take care of yourself on Saturdays, the day we are most likely with our children. To find the time, you have to look and see what needs to happen and what can wait in order to try to take care of ourselves. It is important to prioritize the time to do self-care. To minimize feeling guilty about taking time for yourself, you have to change your mindset. If you don't have the money for self-care, free events are awesome! Facebook can be a great resource to find free events. You can also go to the dollar store and get crafts to do for fun. Sometimes, you have to get creative in order to find ways to do self-care. If you don't have the energy for self-care, make sure you are intentional about what you do. Drinking water, taking naps, taking coffee naps, listening to music, mindfulness, meditation, the miracle morning savers routine, yoga, zumba, finding things on YouTube, meditation apps, and coloring apps are some relatively easy ways to get more energy during your day. Sometimes in order to get self-care in, we need to ask for help. College students can be great to help you find more time, by watching your kids. Regarding advocating for your teen, you should start as soon as possible. The earlier you learn about your child's condition and the more you learn, the better off you will be. The starting place for each parent is different, but it is recommended to read as much as you can about what you are dealing with. There can be local talks and events to meet others and learn additional information. We most often have to advocate for their health and their education. It can be helpful to look into your local laws and regulations to make sure you have all the information you need. Self-advocacy for teens can look like feeling confident that they can handle situations, an understanding of what they want, attending their own IEP meetings, including them in decisions, and preparing them ahead of time to advocate for something. Advocates and coaches can also help the teen self-advocate. A guidance counselor and/or social worker can be excellent resources, but a job coach can also be useful. Links: Britney Dent Website  Facebook  Instagram Email  Miracle Morning Savers Yoga With Adriene Smart Kids With LD Bullet Journals Bullet Journals Bullet Journals Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. Check us out on Facebook and join our parent group! Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5 star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast. Show Music: Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment. Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple