From Riches to Rags, and the Glory I Found There

  My kid hugged me for the very first time the other day...without any prompting, she willingly wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. We've hugged many times since I brought her home, but always by my prompting, and she has, not one time, had her heart in it.  And my heart just broke...it devastated me.  Because I was being a disaster of a mom just moments before. I was frustrated and overwhelmed and I put too much of my own expectations on her. And I knew it.  It is not her responsibility to regulate me. Nor is it her responsibility to fill my tank. And it is certainly not her responsibility to ensure that I act and react in healthy ways. Those are all my jobs towards her as her mother.  I overreacted to her typical preteen obnoxiousness (not doing her chores or some such, accompanied by a bad attitude) and I ended up almost in tears because I just felt so very alone in that moment. I'm a widowed, single mother to an almost adopted pre-teen and sometimes th...