Our place

How much do time do you spend researching the purchase of a new car or home? How much time is reasonable to spend comparing prices and features for a new phone package, cable TV, lastest music player?

It would be nice if there was a shortcut when your kid gets ill. If you could just visit a consultant who would sort out the options for you, print out a chart. If there was an "Idiot's Guide to Being a Parent of an Eating Disorder Patient."

There isn't, sadly. (Though don't be surprised if you are treated like an idiot.) And I wish every parent was given the mission, the time, and the permission to research the options with as much energy and taking as much time as we would buying a house. But parents are often held back by a fear of seeming too enmeshed, or of being distrustful, or a fear of not "knowing their place."

Our place is on the phone, on the Internet, in the bookstore, at the library. Our place is at a series of waiting rooms with a notebook and a pen and a list of questions. Our place is taking as much care in the decisions of who, where, and how our children will get treatment as we would the most important decision of our lives - it may well be. They're worth it.

Comments

  1. Oh boy would my employers hate you!- and you'd do them sooooo much good.

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