Reflections in Real Time
Why So Many Kids Are Misdiagnosed and Misunderstood
You’ve taken your child to the doctor. To therapists. To neuropsych evaluations.
You’ve walked out with acronyms: ADHD. ODD. Mood Disorder. Autism Spectrum.
Maybe none of them feel quite right.
Maybe your gut says something deeper is going on.
If...
What Every Parent Needs to Know About Prenatal Substance Exposure
If you're parenting a child with confusing behaviors, learning challenges, or emotional volatility—and nothing seems to work—it might be time to ask a deeper question:
Could this be FASD?
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) affe...
Why “I Have Black Kids” Isn’t the Flex You Think It Is
Let’s just say it:
If your go-to defense against racism is “I have Black kids” or “I have a Black friend,” you’ve missed the point.
Yes, I’m a white parent of Black children.
And I’m telling you: that doesn’t give me a free pass.
It doesn’t me...
It might look like a tantrum.
A slammed door. A disrespectful tone.
A total refusal to brush teeth, go to school, or follow rules that “should” be simple.
But sometimes, what you’re really witnessing isn’t a child misbehaving.
You’re watching trauma rise up through generations.
And land, screaming...
Parenting is hard. Transracial parenting? It’s a whole different level of navigating love, loss, and learning. White Awake Parenting was born out of my own humbling, heartbreaking, and ultimately life-expanding experience of raising Black children in a world that wasn’t built for them—and of waking ...
When my beautiful, Black children came to me through adoption, I thought love was enough. But very quickly, I realized it wasn’t. Not in a country still deeply scarred by racism, systemic injustice, and unequal power.
If we white parents don’t do the work — if we don’t face our own whiteness, unlea...
It only took 10 seconds for educator Jane Elliott to demonstrate how racism lives in all of us.
She asked a room full of mostly white people:
“If you would be happy to be treated as this society treats our Black citizens, please stand up.”
No one stood.
She waited a moment and repeated the q...
For years, I believed my son’s struggles were my fault. When he raged, withdrew, or acted out in public, I felt like I was failing as a mother. Every angry outburst, every meltdown, every call from school felt like a flashing neon sign announcing: “You’re doing it wrong.”
If you’ve felt this way to...
I used to believe that my fierce love for my Black twins was enough to inoculate them against racism. But whiteness—my own unexamined assumptions, reflexes, and fears—kept showing up in the quiet moments of parenting.
Late one night, I noticed a tall Black man walking toward me on an empty street. ...
Let’s be honest: the world is full of coaches. Life coaches. Parent coaches. Trauma coaches. Mindset coaches. Nervous system coaches. (Guilty—I’ve worked with several.)
So how do you know who’s right for you—especially when your life includes adoption, trauma, grief, race, identity, and the messy j...
Even thinking of yourself as a “rescuer” assumes someone else needed saving.
That someone else had misfortune. That you’re offering them something they didn’t have.
And the heartbreaking part is - your children feel that imbalance, even if they don't yet have the words for it.
They life in a worl...
When my twins were toddlers, I remember being called out about their hair.
Strangers—Black strangers—would approach me in the grocery store or at the park with comments that, at the time, I interpreted as criticism.
“You’ve got to moisturize their hair.”
“Whew, they’re dry, mama.”
In my head, I w...