My Story

May 15

If you follow my coaching account on Instagram, you know that we experienced a very big win for our family this week. I hinted at it in last week’s email.

For the last three years, I have been trying to get necessary in-school support for one of our kids to be able to read and write with fluency.

Here’s the short-ish version of the story:

Three or four months after I decided to leave my job for full-time ice cream life, I had way more time to spend with the kids. Ila, our eldest, was the only one in full-time school at the time. I was volunteering at her school a lot. I was spending more time with the other parents who sent their kids to the same school. And, I think I just had more time to pay attention to the development of each of our kids.

During the spring parent teacher conference, I found some of the work in Ila’s writing portfolio curious. Something was not adding up. Her writing did not quite seem to be where it should be, which prompted a deeper inquiry about what might be going on. Through a series of evaluations and conversations with her teachers and other professionals, we learned that she has dyslexia, a very common learning disability that public schools hadn’t yet figured out how to screen and properly address for students…until this past week.

Through all of my own advocacy for her to receive support during her school day, I became increasingly frustrated, angry, and sad that my otherwise confident child’s self-esteem and positive relationship with school was deteriorating because her needs were not being met in the classroom.

At my wits end, it became clear that she would likely never receive the support she needed at the school that she attended. I began searching for a new learning environment that could build an independent education plan that would rehabilitate her academic confidence while also teaching her in a way that better supported her learning needs.

We found the right school this fall. Since attending, she has done a 180. She proactively completes her work. She actively participates in class. And, she is willingly reading!! Being there has been a blessing.

But, I’d be lying to you if I told you paying for this level of education was a walk in the park. Because of the cost, we needed to retain a lawyer to help us secure a reimbursement from the Department of Education for this tuition.

After a lot of work documenting how her school actively failed her for two years and working with the lawyers, we won our case this week.

After receiving the news, a mental weight was lifted. She will now continue to grow and learn with the necessary support that every child deserves.

Here’s what I learned from this three-year process:

1) When you don’t know how to do something, talk to as many people as possible about what you are experiencing. Through these conversations, you will find others who have experienced or are experiencing the same thing. You will learn from them and share resources to find solutions. There is power in numbers and parents are one of the most powerful groups of people when they work together.

2) When you don't know how to do something, seek the counsel of an expert. For us this meant retaining a lawyer. Advocating for Ila alone versus when I brought my parent advocate to school meetings was night and day. Our legal team was instrumental in supporting me on how to manage her case.

3) I have spent hours…hours(!!), meeting with people, taking Ila to appointments, and documenting conversations over the last three years. Throughout this process, I have been reminded many times that time is our most valuable asset. The way I decided to use my time working for myself gave me the capacity to be mentally and physically present for Ila. I was able to show up as her best advocate. I am confident that it would have been a lot harder to do that if I were still stressed out and maxed out at work.

And, since I overstand how important our time is, I’m hosting that time workshop that I mentioned a few weeks ago. It’s called Reclaiming My Time Retreat.

Register if you want to dive into how best to use your time to reach your personal and professional goals no matter where you are on the trajectory to achieving them.

WHEN: ✨Tuesday, June 7th | 9am✨
WHERE: Zoom! 😘
WHAT: Reclaiming My Time Retreat
WHY: Because life is too short to be wasting the most valuable non-renewable resource we’ve got…Time.

Have a great week!

Petrushka

P.S. If you want to attend the retreat but this day doesn’t work for you, let me know!