Kids As Role Models

I have described in another blog my trials and tribulations as I recover from Bowel Resection surgery. Needless to say, recovery is long, tedious and I am bored out of my mind. I read, I write, and I take care of some home business, but I don't get around to well right now, so I feel somewhat confined. Trapped is more like it.

I got to thinking today about how people handle depression. I have my ups and downs like most people, but I've never considered myself chronically depressed. However, this recovery is beating me up and it is tough. Then I got thinking about my youngest daughter Jenny. Jenny has taken some pretty stiff blows in her life and always seems to be able to rebound and carry on.

I got to thinking today about an event that occurred in 1982. Jenny was in grade school, maybe fourth or fifth grade. I had taken a new job in Plymouth, WI and we were going to move from Racine, WI to Sheboygan Falls, WI. We had a nice home in Racine, we lived there for only two years and we had hoped to be there for many years. Circumstances prevented that.

As the time to move approached we were all a little apprehensive. I had been working in Plymouth for about three months so mentally I had moved, just not to our new home yet. The kids however were living in Racine with their mother and still had the neighborhood attachments and moving was causing some problems.

I came home on weekends, it was only about a three hour drive from Sheboygan, WI to Racine. My wife and I were asleep in our bedroom one Saturday morning when we woke at 6:30 AM to the sounds of something thumping outside our bedroom window. Looking outside I could see Jenny with a garden hoe in her hands hammering the ground viciously. The garden had been harvested, there were no vegetables of any kind that need hoeing or tending. Yet, here was Jenny attacking the ground as though we were getting ready for spring planting.

My wife and I did not do anything at the time. We settled back in bed, listened to the ground attack and woke up. My wife talked with Jenny later and found out that Jenny was quite upset about the move. Jenny had not been able to sleep well that night and woke early. Her method of handling stress/depression was action, get up and do something. Doing something may not have a purpose, but it does take the mind away from your issues and gives you some physical outlet for your frustration.

To this day action tends to be Jenny's response to stress, tension and bouts of depression. So I to am taking action. I'm putting these thoughts down in this blog. I am going to drive to work tomorrow and do what I can. I get out and walk. I am physically not able to do a lot of lifting or physical work yet, but I am starting to work on that. I shall follow my daughters lead and work myself out of this blue mood.

Yes, kids can be role models, thanks Jen.

Dad