Hi there,
Thank you for getting in touch and telling me how things are for you and mum at the moment. I can hear how worried you are and how much you want to help your mum. It sounds like youre a very caring and considerate person. Its natural to want to help the people we love when we can see them going through a difficult and distressing time.
Its really positive that you want to help your mum, but its important that you still have time for yourself too. Supporting other people, especially family and friends, can be hard work emotionally. Its not easy seeing someone close to you get really upset. From your letter Im not sure who else is in your family besides your mum. Maybe you could take some time to think about who you could talk to about things at home. You need to be able to talk about your own thoughts and feelings as well as listening to mums. It might be that mum would also find it helpful to have some extra people to talk to.
Remember that its not your responsibility to fix things for your mum. Being kind and taking time to listen when shes upset will make a big difference for her. Hopefully in time she will start to feel better. If you are still worried about her after a few months, then its ok to talk to another adult about getting some more support for you both.
Im wondering how it would feel to talk things through with your mum and let her know how worried you are about her? Perhaps you could ask her if theres anything you can do to help. That way shell be able to see how much you care and are affected by what has happened.
You have done brilliantly writing down your feelings for me and being so open and honest. If youd find it helpful to talk a bit more, remember you can always talk to the counsellors at ChildLine in a 1-2-1 chat. You might also like to get support from the message boards, which is where other children and young people can share messages with each other about the issues they face in their daily lives.
Once again thank you for your letter and take good care of yourself,
Sam
You can talk privately to a counsellor online or call 0800 1111 for free.
You can ask me about anything you want, there's nothing too big or small. I read every single letter but I can only answer a few each week. My replies are published here on my page.
