How My Childhood Medical Trauma Shaped the Way I Parent My Medically Complex Son

Sometimes, understanding the parent you’ve become means going back to the child you once were.

This is a very different kind of conversation for In The Heart Of The Vault.

Before I talk about Charlie and the experiences we’ve navigated together, I wanted to share some of my own story — because our past doesn’t simply disappear when we become parents.

Our experiences, our fears, the things we’ve lived through and the things we’ve carried can shape how we respond when our own children face challenges we never imagined.

As I’ve navigated Charlie’s complex medical journey, I’ve come to understand more about myself, the experiences that have shaped me, and the ways I’ve been able to show up differently for him.

Not because I’ve got everything figured out. Not because the decisions are easy. But because sometimes, the hardest experiences teach us things about ourselves that we only understand years later.

This episode is about my story, Charlie’s story, and the connection between the two.

Because sometimes, the work we do within ourselves changes the way we show up for the people we love most.