My Failure as a Parent

Right after my son, Christian, was born, Robin and I ran into a friend named Henry Lyon and he gave me the best piece of parenting advice I ever received. He told me that the one thing I need to provide for my child was, "Stability."

When I mentioned it to him a couple of years later he couldn't remember saying that, but he did and I've always fallen back on it for every parenting decision.

I've shown up at court and fought evictions, hid things from my children and always picked them up at school on time, even if I had to call someone to pick them up for me.

Until my stroke.

The last year or so has been hell on my children. Visiting me in the hospital, never knowing who would pick them up, and watching Robin take over all of my duties and new ones as well.

And now we've uprooted them, moved to my parents' house in Lawrenceburg, away from every person and place they've ever known.

I try to keep some continuity, to give them the illusion of stability, but it doesn't seem to work.

I let my son keep his World of Warcraft account because he can keep in touch with the people in his guild. That's it, the only contact he has with anyone from his old life.

Grace made new friends, but she's already lost them. The boy told her to open a can of paint and she did, then they painted the carport of an abandoned house together.

Her defense was, "He told me to..."

So here we are, no home in Bowling Green, living with my parents and the kids don't even know where they'll be going to school in the fall.

Robin is starting to crack and I'm only holding together for her sake.