Pretty Little Liars

Why am I watching this show now called Pretty Little Liars? Why can I not wait until everyone is asleep in my house and then I put my earplugs in to watch this? I think this is the idiot part of me that is being kept awake and entertained by this show. Because some of the stuff that happens in this show is just plain crazy. For instance, no one EVER calls the police, people find out they have been stalked and find pictures of themselves taken by the stalker but still NO ONE closes any of the blinds in their house. It's like, "yeah here I am - take more pictures of me, I left the curtain up for you." I almost scream out loud when I see this, but yet, night after night, I keep watching. Ugh, what am I doing?!

But maybe it's a good thing to have something silly to be entertained by? Probably not, but that will be my excuse. Life gets pretty crazy with everything going on - mostly with my work which can be pretty intense (I work with teams who help kids who are removed from their home or are almost going to be removed from their home and I am on call 24/7 so I hear a lot of crazyness). So at the end of a crazy day where a child has OD'd or they were taken to a psyc hospital, or an entire school district has told us they won't let a kid back into any of their schools for a particular reason, I guess that's why it's nice to just watch Pretty Little Liars. Kind of makes me forget about all of the crazyness in the world.

I also think that's why I love the idea of Mary Poppins. She comes to help the parents. Because all of these kids that I hear about at my work are all identified as the "problem" but when our teams go into these homes, man - if only their caregivers would realize what they are doing. Very, very sad. The dynamics in these homes are just very very sad.

So what a relief to come home to OUR HOME where I get to see Ava and Tony and our little min pin Rubi Mae. And how wonderful it is to see Ava run up to Tony to hug him and hear her pray for her food in the morning. And oh do I just love it when we have the music going, and Ava's playing, and our dog is running around, and then we decide to drive down to oceanside and see the Ford family, but we stop on the way at a viewpoint to see the ocean . . . I just love it. No, we are not perfect by any means, but man, we have fun and our daughter knows what love is.

So that's what I try and help the teams convey to the families they work with - the environment they are creating can be recreated so that they can have peace, and structure, and fun, trust, and safety. But it's a difficult task and sometimes, many things are working against the families. But I'm not giving up - we still try every day. And watching Pretty Little Liars . . . I think I will keep enjoying it :)

-Emily


“Things usually work out in the end."
"What if they don't?"
"That just means you haven't come to the end yet.”
-Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle