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"I didn't know how best to parent her and not take that away from her because that's who she is."

Ellon Dougan

Single Mom, aggressive meltdown, mindset shift

Hello. My name is Ellon and I am raising my seven year old daughter on my own. She is spirited and super creative. She's diagnosed as autistic and SPD. So we are just a little family before CTC. I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants. A meltdown for our family looks like running away, hiding, crying, just kind of laying down. So it wasn't aggressive, but it is still unsafe when we're out in public and hard to get out. And I ended up confining her to a stroller a lot, which is kind of unfair to her as she got bigger. She also struggles with the transitions. So that's something we continually used to work on. I didn't want to damp in her spirit because she is super funny and she's super creative and her imagination is always going. And I didn't know how best to parent her and not take that away from her because that's who she is. So I was like I said, I was flying by the seat of my pants and I didn't do a lot of research cause I'm kind of a person that learns best by doing and not reading. That's not how I absorb it. So I came across the CTC and it just decided to join. And I'm so glad I did the way the videos are nice and short, just the little chunks, but really the community really helped me because I post in there or other people post. And I can really see some of the similarities of how things are not family or, or how they are family, my daughter. And that really helped me tailor what we needed for our unique family to make myself feel better about how to parent her and make her feel understood and keep her spirited little mind intact that she, she has that one she'd go there and it's not taken away from her. Like I said, we struggled with transitions and with the mint or the running away went out. So since CTC, I feel much safer taking her out and she is seven now and we don't have to worry about the stroller anymore. We make a plan ahead and we have tools and I'm able to read her better so that I can see when she needs me to step in. So if you're thinking about CTC, it definitely is something that can help any kind of family. And thanks for listening.