“This life? Well, it’s slipping right through my hands. These days turned out nothing like I had planned.” These lyrics encompass how I used to feel. I was tired. I was fed up. I was not enjoying life being a parent. It wasn't supposed to be like this, right? Why is this happening to me? Why is this so hard? What's wrong with my child? Why am I failing? Why can't he just snap out of it? Why is my kid not like the other kids? Why are my kids out to get me? Things were out of control. Meltdowns were every few days and lasted for one to three hours. We had bite marks and bruises. We were struggling to leave the house.

We tried reward charts and visual schedules. We had to carry my son into school because he was too anxious to walk in by himself. We even saw a therapist who said that it was my fault for not bonding with him.

I found CTC and related to Dayna and her family story, how they worked together to turn their life around. I wanted that for my family. So we were at rock bottom, my husband was unemployed and we decided that we needed to make a change and signed up. This program has shown me how to work with my family to get things done. We've worked on better communication, on making plans together for our routines to make them flow. Meltdowns only occur infrequently. We celebrate wins daily and I get a chance for self care. We make sure he gets regular snacks and a good night's sleep.

We now have hoped for the future. We are in a lockdown in a pandemic, and had to do remote learning. With the support of the CTC team and community, I know that we are going to be okay. We are putting one foot in front of the other and working towards thriving.