tangential note on co-sleeping
for the only one of our four Very Challenging Students i haven’t come up with a title for yet i was talking about her family situation with one of our social workers once and the first thing she mentioned, when she mentioned that certain things needed to change at home, was that the girl & her mom sleep in the same bed. which, i don’t know, the girl is six, not a baby i don’t know anything about child development at all. BUT. it was weird to me that that was mentioned like something that should be an automatic no-no? i don’t know, something about it rubbed me the wrong way. also from what i do know about this kid’s background, uh, she has had a seriously fucking difficult life for a 6-year-old and i’m like, maybe things could be better done at home, sure, but even if things MAGICALLY TURNED AROUND FOR HER AND GOT PERFECT STARTING NOW, which is actually literally impossible, she would still be dealing with what she’s been through for years and years because that’s how trauma operates, right? i dunno.
this social worker also once told me that if you suspect abuse in any situation you should always call immediately which i am not convinced of based in large part on things i have heard from people who grew up in abusive households about what such calls actually wind up bringing into the lives of victims of abuse, i.e. usually not a lot of help and more abuse. i was like “so like in the after school program i was in where a kid asked, how many of your parents beat you, and the other 5 or 6 kids at the table all raised their hands…” and she was kind of just like “it’s always better to say something” and i’m just like, i get that, but i also believe in thinking about what the realistic possible outcomes of actions are? but also, i mean, i just turned 24 and do not have any professional qualifications to do anything, and she has been a practicing social worker for a long time, so she probably knows those things better than i do? i don’t know I HAVE CONFLICTS ABOUT THINGS I SEE IN MY JOB, film at 11.
