Keep calm and get over oneself

Today, I had to force myself out of bed because I was feeling particularly down. A tradie was coming early to start restoring our roof. I dragged myself around to shower and dress. I was taking something out to the front bin when he arrived.

The tradie had a young boy beside him in the cabin of his truck. The boy was the man's 9-year-old grandson named Storm. Storm by name and storm by nature, apparently. Pop was looking after him because it was school holidays.

As it turns out, Pop and his wife care for three of their grandchildren because their mother is unfortunately a drug addict. Storm is also on the spectrum, and he loves his Pop. He sat in Pop's truck for several hours, playing on Pop's phone, quiet as a mouse.

Everyone has their baggage. Everyone has their own challenges, don’t they? Pop, you are doing an amazing job! Your situation put my low mood into perspective. So instead of crawling back into bed, I managed to accomplish a lot of work.

Did you know that the number of grandparents becoming custodial caregivers for their grandchildren is on the rise in Australia? Finding exact statistics can be challenging, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) doesn’t provide clear numbers on this is

sue, but I will keep searching