Poems I want to share

Although I deal with it constantly I have only focused on my bipolar once in my blog. I know I've mentioned it here and there. But devoting a post specifically to it isn't the same. Here lately it seems it's all I can think about whether I like it or not.

Rather than write like my traditional posts I wanted to share with you some of my pasts poems. Some that are fitting with how I feel today.

Habits are hard to break, but harder to forget

You can think about your problem any way you like, pretend it isn't there, or you can face the truth and acknowledge its existence. Either way, the reality of your problem will still be there. You just have more power to make your situation better if you face it.

Usually, facing the truth of a difficult situation is a short term pain than most people anticipate. It can hurt like a sucker punch, but then comes the best part. You get the chance to move forward with your life, leaving behind a dirty piece of baggage that you've been dragging around behind you. As long you keep trying to dress up that piece of baggage and keep it with you, it's going to keep weighing you down.

Food is easy to become my adversary. Anorexia can easily become my baggage. Anorexic behaviors are obviously way more than just bad habits, they are habit forming. They are rituals.

I was familiar with the notion that an eating disorder is like a tumor in that it has the potential to sneak up some time in the future after recovery has become well set in. Reality says that it will more than likely do so to some degree from time to time in the future. I have found that reality.

Grace in a bottle

I messed up. I failed. I had worked so hard and with one stupid act I threw it away. Or so I thought. For over a year I worked through mental and emotional struggles. I let my guards down and became vulnerable. I submitted to ordered requirements with no complaints. I submitted to God and everything He wanted. With flying colors I succeeded. As a result I am now a leader. And yet the guilt of failing the other night weighed on me like nothing I hadn't felt in a long time.

I've made a lot of mistakes and bad decisions in my life. Couple my hardheadedness with my bipolar and you've got a perfect recipe for uncertainty.

When I blow it as a dad

During the summer months when school is out I get my 3 kids for the first two weeks of each month. So in addition to my step-kids I have 5 kids that I stay at home with during the day. My kids just returned to their mother's on this last Sunday for June's visitation. Given their ages, having all 5 of them is nothing short of chaos. Three hormonal tweens with attitudes, (one is oppositional defiant), a sensitive 7 year old and 5 year old who is definitely her own person with as many one liners as a blockbuster comedy.

Having all 5 of them together typically means my time is pretty much stretched for whatever activity or task that needs to be done. More kids means more laundry, more dishes, more one on one times, more together time and less personal time. I feel like Snow White caring for my own set of seven dwarves.

Remember your Parental Rights

Even if parental alienation is not recognized in your state as abuse, it doesn't mean you are without defense. Parental alienation or even any similar form of abuse is not technically recognized in most states. However, this doesn't mean we are without means of defense and offense in the midst of our awareness and causes to make this form of abuse legally recognized.

When PA is technically not going in our favor in our cases, it as a whole can be broken down into its elements dissecting it. Exposing it without making it look like a "witch hunt" as many want to paint it as.

It seems one of the biggest mistakes we make as parents when fighting for our children is focusing on technicalities and technical terms. We cannot overlook that PA is a downright violation of civil rights as parents and our children's as well. Civil rights that are protected by the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of our United States Constitution.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil...my fight against Parental Alienation/Interference

This is one of my long posts and I ask that you stick with me on this one. If you read just of one post on my blog I'm glad it's this one in particular. 

There is a textbook definition of parental alienation (PA) that doesn't give it justice. One that describes its many features as, "a set of behaviors that are harmful and damaging to a child's emotional and mental health involving the mental manipulation and/or bullying of the child to pick between their mother or father. It deprives children of their right to be loved by and showing love for both of their parents and extended family. A parent uses alienation/interference tactics to hurt the other "target" parent. They deny access to anything that may challenge their view of the other parent, including any photographs, or any form of communications." It most often occurs in high conflict divorces.

Its results...damaging psychological effects with severe opposition to contact with one parent and/or hatred toward such parent as a result.