How Do You Plan For the Future?
These are my children. This is my heart and my entire life. Every one of them just as important. This photo shows so much personality. Nate, the clown in the front. The protective big brother Tyler with Sammy being a goofball. AJ ready to take on the world and Grace happy to just be with momma. I am the all time protector. I watch over each of them constantly. It’s my job,It’s my privilege and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
However, someday I will be gone. I pray not for a very very long time. Who is going to take care of them then? How will they survive? Bad things happen all the time. What do we do then? I have no doubt in my mind that my boys and Grace will be ok in the long run on their own but someone will have to care for Sammy, no matter when we die. Now or 20 years from now.
We have begun planning and we are buying life insurance. Each child will also be insured as a way to grow money for their college funds and for Sammy therapy and other things he may need along the way. It’s hard to think of the future where I wont be there to take care of him. If you all don’t already have life insurance you might want to look into it. The next thing to take care of is a Last Will and Testament. I am not really ready to cross that bridge yet.
How do you decide who will take care of your special needs child?
I’ve had so many parents confide in me about these same worries and fears. I truly empathize with these uncertainties about the future…
All parents have unique stresses as the result of raising children, but what is being done to help parents cope?
My name is Crystal Lee, and I am a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Baylor University. For my dissertation I am studying stress and ways of coping with stress in parents. My hope is to use the data from my dissertation to create an effective way to help parents cope with stress.
I am looking for parents of children ages 5-12 in three categories:
1. Parents of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder
2. Parents of children with Type 1 Diabetes
3. Parents of children with no diagnoses
If you meet the above criteria, please take this survey, which takes 30-45 minutes to complete: https://baylor.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0GJF7ldjuBwBWEk
If you do not meet the above criteria, please consider forwarding the survey to any parents you know that fit the above criteria.
People who complete the survey can participate in a drawing for one of three $50 giftcards to Amazon.com. Additionally, people who refer others to the survey get their name added into the drawing for each person they refer.
If you have any questions regarding the study, you may contact me at [email protected]
Thank you for your time and help,
Crystal Lee, M.S.
Doctoral Student
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Baylor University