I recently resigned my job as the Parenting Editor for The Mighty. Having a full-time job and caring for two kids with disabilities (insurance, waivers, therapies, medical care, specialists, IEP meetings) was all too much. My part-time options — options that pay well — are few and far in between. And I know I am not the only parent who faces this issues.
We need more options for working parents of kids with disabilities — flexible options. What if we could be the ones creating those options?
Join me as I talk to Faith Clarke about working options for parents like us. Spoiler alert, she talks about how we can turn our passions into work for us. But how do we even go about it? Is that even a possibility? Faith’s interview has me dreaming all kinds of dreams and I hope it does the same for you.
Listen to the show:
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Outline from the show:
Parents of kids with disabilities have three main needs:
- Need for autonomy: being able to direct our lives.
- Need for relationships with people we love.
- Need for competence: being able to express ourselves in ways we are good at and receiving some recognition from our work.
Entrepreneurship can be an act of radical self-care; an opportunity to craft what is in your heart into an income generating opportunity.
What can we realistically do? How does this become self-care?
We need to learn to listen to ourselves.
Related: When the Primary Caretaker of a Child With a Disability Gets Sick
Figure out your what. Get crystal clear on the what, then you can figure out the how. Learning your strengths are the ingredients for the how.
Believe you are worth discovering yourself.
We cannot balance all the things. You cannot give equal time or energy to all the things you do.
We need to explore all the hard feelings (like anger, disappointment, sadness) and deal with them before we can truly experience joy and happiness and all the positive things.
“Your work should serve your heart.” — Faith Clarke
Contact Faith Clarke:
Faith@melodyofautism.com
Faith Clarke’s website.
Parenting Like a Ninja book (<— affiliate link)
*Transcript in progress
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Love ❤️ this bc I am a special needs parent :))
Thank you so much! This is spot on and I as well left an organizational development career of 20 years to homeschool my son with disabilities. I’m navigating some entrepreneurial ideas to best use my professional people skills in novel ways. This gave me tingles!
I left my job as a Paralegal because i felt like I was often giving up the time my child needed for a job that I wasn’t really a fan of anyway. I now have a job that allows me to have that time but now no money. There doesn’t seem to be a way to have a job that gives you time and money.
I know, there are no jobs (that pay well) for parents in our situation.
I so enjoy reading your e-mails, thanks you.
I am a specials needs parent to an 11yr old boy with OI type 2.
South Africa