When a child comes into this world; they don’t ask for the life they receive. They don’t ask for the type of parents they get, the type of house they live in, or what part of the world they are from.
They just ‘are’.
They just ‘become’.
They just ‘arrive’.
For the most part, your average child is born, and they grow up in a loving household. They get fed nutritious food, they play at parks, make friends, go to school, grow up, get a job, get married, live life; and then someday die. Their ‘legacy’ if you will, is remembered by friends and family and they could be remembered to be a loving, caring and wholesome person.
However; my story has a different side.
Some children, when born, don’t always get a life filled with sunshine and rainbows. They receive parents who cognitively are not ready to be parents. This could have been due to developmental delays, addiction issues, mental health issues that haven’t onset yet, or many other things that could impact the caring of one’s self or the caring for others.
Some children are born into poverty, abuse and neglect. Some children are born into families whose parents are drug addicts. Some children are born into families whose parents have extreme anger issues, and sometimes those anger issues get taken out on other people; family members and even the children themselves.
So right off the bat, some of you are probably wondering ‘why are drug addicts having children’? or ‘if they can’t take care of a child why are they having one’?
Well.
I promise you that we will explore all your questions and more in some way, shape or form in this blog. This blog is going to explore a different side of life, Child and Youth Care, brain development, mental health issues, cognitive development, and many, MANY more topics that relate to the Human Services field.
I’m going to try and write my blog posts in a way, almost everyone can understand. Easy, up to date, and easy to understand language so everyone can try and piece things together fairly quickly. I like to ask a lot of open-ended questions to get the wheels turning ‘upstairs’, so get ready to use that brain of yours. I’ll go through some of my childhood, and different situations I experienced as a child, and try to directly connect those situations, to different situations we experience today, in the work we do together, in different parts of the Human Service field.
But please know that I am not the only one.
I am not the only person who has survived the life of living in ‘The System’, who has since moved on and is now trying to do the best work I can with families, youth and children.
There is many more.
This blog, my story, my connections, my perspectives and my hopes;
This is for you.
To the children, youth and families currently involved with child welfare, or ‘The System’;
This is for you.
My only hope, dream or wish, is that someday I can use my voice to try and improve ‘The System’ we work with, work in and work around, to try and make experiences for families, children and youth as easy, hopeful, and seamless as possible.
To the kids out there feeling down and out. The ones that feel like they are alone and have nothing left to live for. The ones that feel lost and don’t know where to turn.
This is for you.
Please know that you are NOT ALONE and there are MANY more kids just like you.
I am one of them.
I strive to give you hope and shed some light at the end of the tunnel on this dark and winding path you are on.
I got you.
Believe me.
Finally, for my biological mother Wendy.
No matter what we went through in life you always loved and believed in me. Even when we didn’t speak for 15 years; you continued to believe. It is your ‘believing in me’, why I made it out of this sometimes-eternal struggle. I look up at the sky and think of you, remember you, and hope you’re doing OK up there.
Thank you for believing me.
Even when I didn’t.
Love you mum.
This one’s for you.
The System Kid 
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