No one prepares you

 No one prepares you for parenting when your own heart is breaking.

You still have to get up in the morning.
Still have to make the snacks.
Still have to read the bedtime stories.
Still have to answer little voices asking, “What’s wrong, mama?” when you can’t put it into words.

You smile through tears.
You hold their world together while yours feels like it’s falling apart.
You hide in the bathroom to cry so they don’t see.

It takes a kind of strength that doesn’t look like strength at all.
It looks like folding laundry with shaking hands.
It looks like showing up to school drop-off when you can barely stand.
It looks like holding them close when you desperately need someone to hold you.

If you are parenting through grief, loss, or illness you are doing the impossible every single day.
And that makes you stronger than you’ll ever give yourself credit for.