So it is around 2:00 am. I’m wondering how many other parents are up at this time; for the millionth time? I turn on the TV and there is a movie about the boy-band sensation, One Direction. I could use a little ‘fluff’ tonight.
As I watch their incredible trip with stardom, I’m taken by their parents and what they have to say. One mom, or mum actually, says it all, “….I know this will one day all be gone…..so I have to be there when that happens, and pick up the pieces….” And that of course made me think of you. All of the ‘yous’ out there…..parents.
How many times have we been there for our children when those ‘pieces’ need to be picked up? The times when it is…..say 2:00 am and you are up; the millions of hugs needed, the care, the doctors appointments, the fights with insurance companies, the discussions with school, the soccer coach, the dram teacher, the choir director, the ice hockey coach, the tears, and the worry, the worry, and the worry. Rock stars, kids in general, and definitely kids with diabetes. You need to be there….and you are. It does not matter of you are on the road in China or if you are on the sidelines at the soccer field; our job is never-ending.
But I also realized that it does not matter of there are a million people screaming your child’s name or your child scores a goal, or even gets through the day with a smile on their face; we smile broadly at those successes. Our children have succeeded.
There is not a happier moment in my life than when my children succeed. And that success is them achieving the things THEY WANT. The things they set their minds up to do; and achieve.
And in the cases when your child has diabetes, well……..you stand just a tad higher because they did it with an obstacle that no one understands as much as you do. You understand that point. You respect that point. And you fully grasp how much the successes they achieve are worth because they did it and diabetes did not win.
Remember that; remember how much you do. Because on this day……the music may very well be up on the stage of life…….but as my dear friend Paul Madden would say; it is YOU who is the rock star. Look in the mirror and smile at what you see today……..you deserve it.
I am a diabetes dad.
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