Let's Be Real - Mama Journeys - Episode 154 W/Sally Raymond

Sally Raymond, from Santa Barbara, California, living near the ocean AND the mountains and at the age of 82, and believing that aging is a choice, she stays present.  She was married at the age of 19 and had two kids as a young mom. She realized that children are here to teach us. Her first born, at the age of 2, read the sign outside the car, Texaco! She realized he was a genius and she was NOT prepared for a genius son. With 45 minute debates at the age of 4 about why he didn’t need to make his bed. She went back to school to keep up with his intelligence and became a psychologist. She was just becoming a therapist when her genius son took his life. He was in calculus at the age of 14 and at the age of 15 was teaching calculus. Unfortunately she didn’t have the tools to see anything but a high achieving student.  He graduated at 21 with his bachelors and masters degree from Carnegie Mellon but took his life right after. She was lost and had no idea how she got to that point. She wrote a book as a roadmap of motherhood. She wishes she would have had this when she was a young mom. Suicide is the top cause of death for people ages 11-34. We need to do better. Her book took 28 years to write but doesn’t want anyone else to go through what she has. She realized, after he died, that we aren’t teaching our children social/emotional skills in school or at home. We aren’t teaching them to empathize, how to use their own emotions and how to be in tune with their own emotional needs. Being a mom is the biggest education she has ever had. She wishes she would have been more of a supporter than a mom.  You can find her book and more information about parenthood at https://sallyaraymond.com/. Her book is called The Son I Knew Too Late and you can find it on Amazon.