With the birth of our 3rd child on 12/4/19, I did some reflecting back on our first 2 experiences while sitting around in the hospital room, especially our first daughter. We were excited, stressed, tired! (We still are.) There were so many people surrounding us in the hospital giving us information and asking questions. Some were calming and reassuring. Others brought some alarm or stress. Then we went home. It quieted a little but we were fortunate to have great support – family, friends, pediatrician, pediatrician’s nurse, etc. We got lots of advice and input to say the least.
I’d like to say that all advice and input about our parenting and child’s development was reassuring but that wasn’t always the case except when it came to our home visitor.
Our home visitor, Ruth, was one of the calming voices. With our first child, we enrolled in home visiting and began seeing Ruth once a month. During that time, she used a phrase that has stuck with me and I’ve used many times since – “The range of OK”. That phrase and, of course, the information she brought to us at visits was empowering. It enabled us to be our own calming voices later on with our 2nd and 3rd children as we were no longer enrolled in home visiting. Ruth’s work with my wife and I had lasting impact.
So a big thank you to our home visitor Ruth. But I – and everyone here at DataKeeper – want to extend that thank you to all the home visitors and home visiting programs for bringing that calming voice into so many homes. We are very aware of the work you do and the impact you are making with your families.
We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!