The Parenting Blindspot: Why We Must Teach Children About Illness

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Mom2Mentor podcast explores the vital role of parents as teachers and mentors, focusing on educating children about physical and mental illnesses. We challenge the excuse of "nobody taught me" by highlighting the abundance of free resources available for parents to learn and then teach their children about important life topics.

• Parents should educate children about both physical illnesses (colds, allergies, fevers) and mental health conditions (depression, bipolar disorder)
• Children need to understand body changes, especially girls entering puberty and experiencing menstrual cycles
• Depression can affect children as young as eight years old, often stemming from negative environments
• Technology and free resources like YouTube make it easier than ever for parents to learn new skills to teach their children
• Parents don't need formal degrees to be effective educators—personal experience provides valuable teaching material
• Understanding mental illness helps children interact compassionately with others who may be struggling

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey ladies, welcome to the Mom2Mentor podcast.
If this is your first timejoining, welcome If you are a
repeat listener.
Thank you for your loyalty.
Hey, I'm back on track thisweek and really extracting words
from the letter I and linkingthem back to your parenting

(00:25):
skills.
Because, remember, we're morethan just moms, we're more than
just nurturers, we are teachers,we are mentors.
So we don't, or should not,leave it up to different
organizations to teach ourchildren about life and what

(00:46):
occurs in life and some of thenatural things that happen.
And I hear you yeah, nobodytaught me, I wasn't aware of
this and that's okay.
That is okay.
I'm right there with you that Iwasn't taught a lot.
Many things I learned bywatching, right.
But we can't stand on thatexcuse all the time because with

(01:12):
today's technology, the abilityto learn is a lot easier than
it was when I was growing up.
Again, I'm an older single mom,so some of the advantages you
all have today I didn't haveback then.
But I'm always learning as well, even at this age, because a

(01:32):
good mom teaches and a bettermom learns to teach, and with
YouTube and the internet and allof these outlets that you can
learn various skills and applyit to your life and guess what?
It's free, right?

(01:54):
One of the things that I do nowis I watch Food Network.
I watch various shows on there.
Why do I watch it?
For technique, cookingdifferent things, right, that I
wasn't taught when I was growingup.
But now here's an opportunityfor me to do better and leverage

(02:15):
technology.
And guess what, ladies, itworks and how much does it cost
me just to go buy theingredients, right, and then I
start cooking and practicingdifferent techniques that I see
and they turn out for my benefit, and you can do the same.
You can do the same.
So we can't use the excusenobody taught me because there's

(02:41):
too many outlets for us tolearn.
And so, moms, I challenge you,take this opportunity and not
just say I'm just a provider anda nurturer, but I'm also a
teacher, a mentor, someone mychild can look up to and be
proud of.

(03:01):
Right.
Another word for mentor isbeing an example, right.
So use your imagination of howyou want your child to behave
and if you want your child tocontinue to learn right, outside

(03:21):
of the walls of the school, ofvarious organizations, right,
because that's what's going tohelp them get ahead in life,
help them, get above and get inposition for when people come at
them and try to sell them ortell them anything.
Now they're in position to belike, uh-uh, nope, I researched

(03:43):
this myself, I learned it myself.
That's what we want our kids tobe.
We want them to be alert tovarious life challenges, and
nobody is better to teach themthan you are yeah, than you are
Mom.
All right, let me get back ontrack.

(04:04):
You all already know how I am.
I get off the exit quitefrequently when it comes to
discussing various topics.
So today we're going to talkabout illness, yeah, or sickness
, but because I'm on the letter,I we're going to call it
illness, right.
And so I think that we shouldeducate our children about

(04:31):
illness, because it's going tohappen to them.
It's even going to happen toyou, mom.
And how do you deal with it?
What is it and why do we haveto have it right?
That's the approach we wouldwant to take as far as educating
our children.
And guess what, mom?
You should not only educatethem about physical ailments,

(04:55):
but talk about mental illness aswell.
What categorizes mental illness?
And I would say depression,right?
And you know, I read somewherea while ago where I believe it
was an eight-year-old that wassuffering from depression and I
was like well, how can that be?
They're not even experiencinglife yet.

(05:17):
How can an eight-year-oldsuffer from depression?
Well, if you think about it,what really leads to depression
and it really makes you feellike you don't have self-worth
or self-value and you're sad allthe time?
Well, most of the times thatcomes from the environment that

(05:39):
you're in that leads to thatsadness or that feeling of
feeling down.
So if you come home every daythere's arguing and everything's
negative in a very negativeenvironment, then, yeah, you
probably are going to fall intoa form of depression because you

(05:59):
don't know how to deal with itright.
Or if people are talking aboutyou and you don't know how to
respond to that, especially ifsome of it is true.
I know when I was growing up Ihad self-esteem problems.
Yes, I did.
Did it make me sad?
No, but I didn't feel asconfident in my appearance

(06:26):
because I was a big girl and Ididn't feel confident and so it
was easy for folks to continueto leverage that or talk about
me.
About that, again, I don'trecall being sad, but I do
recall just not being motivatedor not being confident with who

(06:52):
I am, and I wish someone wouldhave told me back then that it's
okay, people are going to talkabout you, but you don't have to
accept what people say aboutyou, and that's how we have to
educate our children.
People are going to talk aboutyou.
Not everybody is going to likeyou, but you don't allow this to

(07:15):
interrupt your purpose in life.
Keep moving, keep going on.
Do you like you?
That's all that matters.
That's all that matters.
And to help you get around thosefeelings of depression.
You know clothes or buying newclothes always help me, but you

(07:37):
know these are things to helpcompensate for that Getting a
new look, a new style, how youcarry yourself, using different
word choices, just differentthings to uplift you.
But Still, mom, we got toexplain that you're going to
have physical challenges likeallergies, and why that happens.

(08:02):
Right, the pollens, flowers aregrowing and now, all of a
sudden, all of those and forlack of a better term
ingredients and flowers and issparking you to sneeze all the
time, and that's normal.
But this is how we address that.
Right, you got to take allergypills.

(08:24):
We got to keep Kleenex on hand,you know, because you're going
to have the runny nose, thewatery eyes All of those things
are going to happen when youexperience allergies, even when
you get a cold or a flu or astomach ache.
All of these things we have toexplain to our children are

(08:44):
natural things that happen.
Your body is going totransition as you get older and
as the environment changes andyou're not going to start
feeling well for whatever reason.
But that's okay.
But now this is how we solvefor that.
We have medicine that you cantake to help heal your body

(09:09):
right, aspirin.
You'll get a fever every nowand then.
These are things you have to doto help out with that.
There are some foods out therethat will help with some
illnesses that we encounter.
But, mom, it's up to you toexplain that so your child

(09:29):
doesn't be blindsided like, ohmy God, why do I feel so bad,
especially with young girls asthey enter into puberty and they
start their menstrual cycle?
They're not going to knowwhat's going on with their body
and why they all of a suddenfeel depressed and bloated and

(09:50):
ugh.
Right, I think we've all beenthere.
But it's up to us, mom, toexplain that.
And who better, who better toexplain that other than you?
Because she's going to gothrough the same thing you went
through when you started yourmenstrual cycle.

(10:10):
She's going to go through thatsame exact process and that
feeling.
So you can't rely on schools toeducate about this, because
they're not going to know aboutthe cramps and all of that that
comes with it.
But you can, and you caneducate her on what you did to

(10:32):
solve for your issues each timeof the month, right?
So let's start educating ourchildren.
Let's start being that mentorand being that example and
owning that education.
You don't have to have afour-year degree to educate your

(10:54):
child about life, because a lotof it you have already
experienced it and experiencingcurrently.
You're still going through somethings.
But, moms, I challenge you, Ichallenge you take this time and

(11:26):
talk to your child or yourchildren about illness, not just
physical illness, but mentalillness, because I guarantee you
they are going to encountersomebody that has mental illness
and they're not going tounderstand what is happening and
why this person is acting sodifferent from the rest of the
people.
They may have something that'sgoing on, they may be dealing

(11:50):
with depression, they may bebipolar.
There's an abundant of thingsthat can fall under mental
illness.
So I challenge you do yourresearch, do your research and
have that conversation with them, especially if they're
school-aged children, becausethey are interacting with so

(12:10):
many other people, so many otherkids out there that may be
suffering from some form ofmental illness, and how they
prepare for it.
And how do they interact withthese people?
And talking about them doesn'thelp anything, right?
So learn what it is and how youaddress it, and maybe you don't

(12:36):
need to address it, maybe youjust need to understand what
that person is going through.
Yeah, all right, ladies, I amdone for the day.
I surely hope you had awonderful Mother's Day and I
wish you all the best.
Please take time to spend withyour children.

(12:58):
And again, this is the Mom toMentor podcast, formerly known
as Single Moms United.
Same concept we're educating,we're motivating and we are
encouraging all young singlemoms.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please, please and please Now

(13:24):
I don't beg, but I'm beggingtoday Tell another single mom,
encourage another single mom.
Have a good day, ladies, takecare.