Anonymous wrote:I’m really sorry, OP. In my child’s grade we’ve had 3 moms become widowed since the kids started Kindergarten. I wish you were here because the first mom worked really hard to put resources and processes in place at school to support her kids, and it benefited the entire school community.
One of the moms is someone I didn’t know at all but my kid always admired their kid even though they’re the opposite gender and didn’t really know each other. I knew one of her other kids did an intense sport far away on nights that I happened to be free, so I said “I know this is weird, but I can drive Larla on x night if that would help her keep getting to practice.” The mom said yes. Maybe she felt weird about it and maybe the kid did too, but over time we all got to be good family friends. Now my little girl and her older girl do a different sport together…and I’m still driving once a week.
Do you have an acquaintance in the community who can just start a signup genius or something else for you? In our grade there’s one outspoken, extrovert mom who took on this role and stepped in when a family really needed help. It only took a tiny hint from the mom who lost her DH and then the extrovert mom ran with it and half the school received the signup genius with things listed like “Tuesday soccer dropoff”, “Wednesday school pickup”, “Thursday freezer meal”, etc. It filled quickly because people who wanted to help but were frozen in place felt the nudge and stepped up.
We need to find you an assistant/advocate/spokesperson. If that isn’t a friend or fellow parent, is there a guidance counselor or school administrator or PTA volunteer who might help?
This is a really good point. The people who receive the most help in a crisis are often people who are friends with these helper types and don't seem too independent.
OP, can you reach out to one of these helper types to see if they can coordinate some temporary help for you?