We All Need Help

My daughter and I were in her room and noticed that the vent on the ceiling was in need of a good cleaning.

I tried to reach it on by standing on a stool, but it wasn’t tall enough. So my husband grabbed a ladder from the garage and easily reached the vent. He pulled off the cover, and I held it while he used our vacuum brush to clean out the vent. While we were at it, we cleaned three more vents around the house. My husband returned the ladder to the garage while I went into my daughter’s room to tell her we were done.

“Dad helped me reach that tall vent, didn’t he?” I said. “And then he used the vacuum way up on the ceiling to help me clean,” I bragged.

She nodded.

Suddenly, it occurred to me how many times a day my daughter needs people to help her. She needs assistance with dressing and hygiene. She uses a wheelchair and needs help transferring in and out of our van. She’s mostly nonverbal and often needs help with communication.

I wanted to reiterate the fact that Dad helped me, to normalize needing help.

“Daddy helped me. I couldn’t do it by myself. We all need people to help us sometimes, don’t we?” 

Looking deep into my eyes, she nodded again, seeing the truth.

Needing help isn’t a bad thing. We all need help. We are all interdependent. We all need each other’s support.

Visit Family Support to find lots of ways and ideas to assist your family.