Pretend that you are not you. I know, I know-- you don't feel like you right now anyway, and what the heck does that even MEAN??

Well, what it means is-- remember that you're writing a letter to a stranger.

Letter to the Stranger

Write your ROUGH draft. Remind them of all that you know they said and promised, be as angry as you want, REALLY let them have it for dumping this on you right now. THEN--

Throw it away. (Still with me?)

Now, write the rough draft that a professional parent advocate-- or someone here who isn't in your personal bind right now-- would write on your child's behalf. That person's ONLY goal is to get what your child needs and not burn bridges doing it. No emotional investment, no taking personally anything done/said in meetings... no pulling in outside stuff that might matter a lot to YOU right now, but probably isn't 100% relevant (or at least isn't stuff you should share right now with them).

Sit on that draft at least overnight.

Then read Letter to the Stranger-- and read YOUR letter again. Is there anything that a stranger would think was nutty or hostile? Personal? Anything that doesn't serve your ultimate goal of making things BETTER for your child? Get rid of it-- no matter how much you like it or needed to say it, if they don't need to hear it.

{{hugs}}

Hang in there.


Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.