advice from Marcel Rufo

The point of view of Marcel Rufo, child psychiatrist

You suffer from a lack of exchanges, Marie-Françoise. Your isolation is aggravated, because you doubt that things can get better, especially since you recognize that you are experiencing relationship difficulties with your three children. You seem to be partly questioning yourself. Perhaps you are a bit of a victim of your character in this matter? If your children suggest you turn to a psychologist, it is probably because they too feel these tensions. The letter you sent me is a first step. Perhaps a child psychiatrist scares you less than a psychologist… However, know that a psychologist would listen to you with kindness. Do you have a movement backwards? Why not, in this case, open up to a trusted person – friend or helper – with whom you would be used to walking or, if you are no longer mobile enough, a physiotherapist who would come to your home to have you do exercises ? Your children’s proposal reveals that the situation makes them feel guilty and that, feeling powerless to find a way out of it, they would like to rely on a third party, not to get rid of you, Marie-Françoise, but in the hope so that you can relate to them in a peaceful way.