Let me introduce myself to any readers of my future articles. As I look back on my life from a ‘mature’ age, I can see that I must have been born to be a fighter. Not the ‘fisticuffs variety’ but the ‘stand up for yourself and what you believe in’ kind. Not always from choice but from an inner necessity. I received my ‘training’ early. Having been born in a time when there were no effective antibiotics and with many allergic reactions (which were neither recognised nor even known about), my life as a child seemed to be a continual fight against illness, in particular childhood eczema and later severe asthma. I survived. Though I missed a lot of schooling I caught up and went to Edinburgh University, where I trained to be a doctor. When my children started school, I started work again. I fought to work part time to fit in with their school hours and I did. I eventually studied for a further, higher degree and became a Consultant Psychiatrist. Throughout my long career, I found myself fighting. I fought on behalf of patients, either with hospital management to win the patients more and sufficient time and input to allow them to become well again; occasionally with the local housing authorities to find them accommodation; or with the justice system and if I knew my patient, due to be charged was innocent, I would fight on their behalf in a court of law. I fought with them against their illness and their temporarily skewed behaviours and for them. For 35 years of psychiatric work, I woke up in the mornings ready to fight sometime each working day. But then I could sleep at night knowing I had done the best I could for those in my care. For 18 years I looked after my Mother, with my husband’s help, after she moved many miles to live across the road from us as an elderly widow. I spent those years enjoying her company again, after my own children had left home, but also trying to resolve the increasing needs of old age. Busy Mums are also daughters. But, now in my own retirement, I thought I would have an easier life. You know what I mean. I envisaged relaxed days spent with my husband, a few holidays, an occasional visit to a theatre, gardening in the sunshine, walks, reading, knitting for the grandchildren and such like with the odd hour of television thrown in. I sought nothing that was spectacular. However, it was not to be. I have had to fight a long battle against illness and even sparred with death itself, which was not pleasant! I survived. I am undefeated. I have learned so much in my long working life in the field of psychotherapy that I now find I cannot just sit back and bask, as if satisfied by the years of work gone by. No, now I must write. A lot of what I write is my fight for children and teenagers. There are so many aspects of life in this modern era that, to me, seem to be working contrary to the aim of promoting and producing future health and happiness. After all, the future of the world depends on our children. I want my grandchildren to grow up into a kind and considerate world, a safe world. Parents have a huge and continuing responsibility. Two of my poetry books, ‘Growing Up’ and ‘Coping with Illness and Grief’ are for young children (7-12yrs), though parents also like them, and the third, ‘Choice for Teenagers’ has an obvious target. These books are intended to help in guiding children and teenagers, and are written in metaphorical, rhyming verse. They extol the virtues of qualities such as kindness, love, sharing, caring, compassion, harmony and endeavour, the sort of qualities that lead to happiness and fulfilment rather than living purely with materialistic goals. Information about the books is on my websites (see resources box) and the books can be bought, easily, from the sites. £1 from the sale of each of the three children's books goes to a children's charity - at present I have chosen to support 'The Smile Train'. I have made an interactive, safe site for young children (7-12 yrs approximately) with poems from my books, songs( with words from my poems and music by a young teenage composer, Jamie Izak), and stories. I add to this site as/when. I shall write articles for bizymums.com using my experience, as a psychiatrist, wife, mother and grandmother. I hope these will be of interest, and that some, at least, will enlighten and encourage busy Mums everywhere.
Article Source: http://www.bizymoms.com/expert-advice
See Bio Websites : www.audreycoatesworth.com - main site www.elementaryschoolpoems.com - links to interactive children's site and TOPICS on www. dracoatesworth.co.uk