Guardians Of The Precious

Lockdown 2020  How is everyone doing? It’s now been roughly five or is it six weeks since lockdown first took effect. To be completely honest with you, most days I am completely oblivious to what day it is. Where would I be without iCalendar! I started growing tired of lockdown relatively quickly. At around the week 3 mark I was like, OK covid-19 be gone with you! Yet here we are and it hasn’t budged an inch.  I didn’t want lockdown to drive me crazy and neither did I want to view lockdown in such a negative light. Understandably what is happening around the world is terrible, people are dying alone, loved ones are unable to comfort one another in times of grief. Schools are closed and the world we once knew is no more. Yet whilst we are on lockdown we have to strive to make it through the best way we know how. For many this is a worrying time, there are more questions then answers. Peoples livelihoods have been turned upside down, final year exams have been put on hold and

After countless conversations with a vast amount of people. I have come to the realisation that at some point in our lives there is something that we all have or will have in common, and that is experiencing grief. Grief is a part of life and is something that is unavoidable. Yet so many of us seem to struggle with dealing with grief. Why is this? Growing up, there were many things we were taught, many things we were prepared to expect. For the most part we are told to get an education which should pave the way for a good job. We are told we will meet someone to settle down with, maybe even have children and buy a nice house with a garden. Yet when we experience loss, what are we told? Personally I know when I was growing up, there were many aunties and uncles that died, yet none that I knew very well. The time I recall when I first experienced real grief was during secondary school and my friend was murdered. I remember feeling a whole range of emotions. I wa

YOUR BEST SELF  Children, Family, Work, Education, etc. We are all busy doing something. Life is not as structured as we often like to admit. It is not all black and white. Life is free and unexpected, and you and I are just here for the ride. With that in mind, have you ever taken a minute to just sit back and think of how well you are taking care of yourself? IT IS MUCH NEEDED... Here at Guardians of the Precious, it is of the utmost importance to us that you take care of yourself. If you are unable to do so adequately, how can you be expected to look after someone else to the maximum of your ability. Have you ever heard the saying 'Your health is your wealth?'. Well this is absolutely true. If anything were to happen to you today then what would become of your precious children and your loved ones around you? Of course this is LIFE and we don't have much control over everything but you do have the ability to take some time out for yourself. If you a

This topic is such a wide and important one. It manages to split the opinions of people right down the middle. It is a common topic of discussion that arises when you have a child. At some point you are presented with a list of immunisations that your child apparently needs to take from birth. I would like to make this clear from the onset that I am in no way shape or form a medical professional. Neither am I qualified to offer advice, I am simply sharing my thoughts, views and opinions.  Immunisation is the process of making a person immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically via vaccination. There is much conspiracy surrounding this topic which makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction. There are several reasons why people do or do not allow their children to be immunised. For some, it is for religious reasons, for others its from their own personal experience or safety concerns. I l know of some whom believe they simply do not wor

I have found being a parent the most amazing experience of my life thus far, although my children are still very young I am enjoying the journey. I am so amazed when I meet parents whose children are much older than mine, and I begin to imagine the future, how will my children look? What kind of people will they be? What profession will they choose? Will we have a good relationship? I wonder away but pull myself back to reality to enjoy the here and now. When I was dealing with my son’s vein of Galen, this was not my thought process at all. When I was told all the things that might occur with him being born with this condition and the dangerous situations that might follow, I had decided in my mind that I would not have any more children. Already as a parent when you have children, it opens up an entire world of worry, whether you’re with them or whether they’re in school etc. You worry so much, about what they think and feel, about their safety, so imagine having to worry ab

One of the hardest situations I had to deal with during my son’s vein of Galen journey, was being separated from my first-born son who was three at the time. He had to stay with family members most of the time, which he did enjoy, but after a while he just wanted to be back home with his mum, dad and baby brother. He often came to visit us at the hospital and it was awesome that GOSH had so many activities to keep him entertained. He loved coming there as he took this as play time and he obviously got to see his family, but it did start to affect him negatively.   He was sad, although he understood that his brother had to be looked after, he didn’t understand why we couldn’t all be together. We had accommodation whilst our son was admitted but some of these accommodations did not facilitate children. It was always hard to say goodbye to him and one night, he sent me a voice note from his Dad’s phone telling me ‘My heart is broken because I miss my mummy so much’.  As I