Where is the Love?

I was listening to the radio in the car the other day, there was a talking head discussing the treatments for adolescents in Ireland who develop mental health issues, when a thought occurred to me. Probably a mad thought but it's one of those ones I need to vent, so here goes!

The guy said he thought that young people and their families need support in the community, that's what is lacking from their lives. We lack the community support we used to have through living close to our extended families, and through the support of our churches. Everyone seems to live miles from their families now and on Sunday morning we are more likely to go shopping in an out of town shopping centre than go to mass.

But it's not just the teenagers who have mental health issues who need community support it's everyone, every family needs support and those supports just don't exist. So the thought that occurred to me was that the Internet is providing the support for some of us. These forums are the modern coffee mornings, as for myself I know I have found great support in this forum since my youngest was born six weeks ago.

There is a lot of coverage at the moment in the media of the poor woman in Letterkenny and her beautiful daughter who were found dead in their home on Monday and last month we mourned the death of an entire family. Why? everyone asks, well in my opinion we are so disconnected from reality, we are easily disappointed by it.

It's difficult to deal with the reality of being a parent if you are in good mental and physical health but if you aren't then how can we expect people to cope. The fear is always there too, if I can't cope or I'm feeling a bit down and I tell someone will they take my babies away? so while I can't understand why a mother would hurt her baby I can see all the pointers as to why it could happen.

So I think that the Internet could be a wonderful support for parents, it's an anonymous medium and confidential. We can voice our opinions, no one will judge us which I think is essential, sometimes if we just say what we really think and realise others feel the same it makes it easier to bear.

I have only been blogging for only a couple of weeks now and I feel so much lighter and freer,the few people who have read this have said they understand how I feel and they don't think I'm an awful mother which is a support, especially through these first hormonal weeks.

So I'm gonna keep blogging I think, and perhaps if more parents did we'd all feel more supported and accepted as the parents we want to be.