Things We Aren't Supposed To Talk About

Good morning, Cadre. Hello. Happy Thursday. It is Shannon from Cadre. It is 09:05 central Standard time. I am Shannon. I'm actually part of the Cadre team, so if I have not met you before, it's fantastic to meet you today. It is caregiver day on Cadre, and that means caregivers of all kinds. That means people who take care of people who potentially have a disability, who have a medical condition, who have a parenthood with dementia. Right? Who knows? And so my job here in this live is to be a human with no clinical experience.

I'm not a mental health professional. I am not a clinician. I am a mom of a child with autism. I am a person who lives with anxiety. I'm a person who lives with CPTSD. And so that is what I speak about. Okay, so today's topic is something that I believe will be resonant with many of you, and it actually came out of a conversation with a friend of mine, Colleen Lindstrom, who will be on here in just a few minutes. And today's topic is about invisible work. Invisible work as caregivers. Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, speak wonder. Good morning, nuphy lover, sue. Good morning, everyone. I see you, Jim, from the gym. I'm not going to call you out, but I see you. So nice to see everyone. Steph, Erwin. Good morning. Okay, so, invisible work, and I know you all are caregivers, and so you're 100% going to get this, but I was talking to my friend Colleen yesterday, and she is a caregiver, and she was talking about some work she does that is behind the scenes that no one sees, including the person she's caring for and how that kind of work can be the most draining.

And I'm not going to tell her story, but I'm going to say that I'm going to tell my own story about that work because you all get this. So my son, who has autism, he's 15. His name is Wyatt, and I don't recall if I've shared this story. So if I have, forgive me. He's really obsessed with Millie Bobby Brown, who is a character in a Godzilla movie. And so, as you all know, or maybe you don't know, folks who have autism, or at least my son, and how he manifests in the world is he gets really focused on a topic, and then it's like, in his brain.

So Millie Bobby Brown was in this movie, and then she, you know, the next version came out, version four, and her role was gone. This happened months ago. He was upset, and we talked about it, and we talked about it. And, mom, why is Millie Bobby Brown gone? And I'm like, listen, man, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question. There's a lot of reasons why she could be gone, and maybe she chose to be gone, right? So over the past few months, my son has talked about it, and we got to the point where he's like, I want to do something.

And so he created a petition. He took this petition to legendary pictures, which is the production film that created this movie. My friend and I, Jihan, we took this petition, and we had, like, 75 people sign it at a work event. We brought it, we rallied. We did all these things. A month ago, a month and a half ago, we put the petition in the mail. Finally, the petition was done. We went up to the kinkos or whatever it's called by our house, put a stamp on it. Here you go. Legendary pictures paid extra to have, like, you know, guaranteed delivery.

And that petition went out. And it went out, I think, four Thursdays ago. So getting back to the invisible work, my son, every day, probably, if I'm being realistic, I want to say somewhere between 15 to 25 times a day, you will say to me, mom, do you think the petition's going to work? And I say, you know, I'm not sure, Wyatt. And we have this back and forth, and we talk about this petition over and over and over, and we talk about what might happen, what might not happen. You know, we've gone down the road of, listen, you did the work for the petition, and that's amazing.

And I say all of this to say this is one example of invisible work, because I will tell you that as his caregiver and as a human, I don't want to talk. I don't want to talk about the petition anymore. And we've now evolved to the place where he's like, mom, do you like talking about the petition? And the truth is, I don't really like talking about it anymore. I love my son deeply, deeply, deeply. And I say to him, I love you so much. And I care about this because you care about it. I would not choose to discuss this petition anymore.

And so I'm telling you all of this because that is invisible work. And it's hard if you're a caregiver or you're not a caregiver. You're not dealing with someone who has something like this. You might be like, who cares if he talks about the petition? Get over it. That's a little deal, but as a caregiver, and again, you all know this, there's nuances to the people that you care for that only you know, and you're the one that cares for them. And you're the one that shows up for those conversations, and you're the one that does all the behind the scenes to, like, make that person feel loved and cared for, even in the nuances of who they are.

Right. For my son. This is the deal. This is what we're talking about. This is what we're doing. I'm sure for your person. There's another thing. There's another version of that, right? And please put it in the comments if you want to. I'm sure there's a thing that you deal with over and over and over that you do out of love and care for your person, and you're going to keep doing it, and of course you are. And it can make you tired, and it can be that invisible work. So I just want to honor everyone out there today who is doing that invisible work of caring for their people in the smallest of ways or what might seem like the smallest of ways, but are actually like, really, really big, big chunks of work, because it matters to that person that you're caring for, and you are their person.

And you might be the only place in the world where they're gonna get that kind of care. And I just wanna say to you, I see you in all of that invisible work, and you're doing a fantastic job doing it, and it matters, and it's tiring. And a thousand things are true at once. So that is my message today. If I see you on the street, please do not ask me about Millie, Bobby Brown, Godzilla movies or petitions. And that is how you can honor my invisible work. No, but truly, you're doing an amazing job, every single one of you.

I know all of you on this live today, and I know the hard work you're doing. Okay, the rest of caregiver day today on Cadre, coming up next is my friend Colleen Lindstrom, who is in the sandwich generation. We've got miss Shannon Paul today, who we all know and love, who may be coming live to us from the Minnesota State Fair. For those of you who don't live here, we're in the throws of that. We have our Mac clinicians, Minnesota Autism center clinicians coming up. They care for people with autism in a clinical way.

They're awesome. They're our amazing partner. Got Jaycee Lippel coming up. He talks about caring for his parents and he will also sing a song and play the piano. So, I mean, who doesn't want that? We've got Kathy joy coming up. She speaks to caregiving in a analogy of harbor. A harbor. Harbor's amazing. She's always, I mean, honestly, Kathy joy makes me feel really calm. Her name is speak wonder. But when I watch her, there's something about her that's incredibly calming. So I think you would feel that as well if you watched her and then go back and watch Steph Irwin.

She comes to us from the south. You gotta love Steph Irwin. She is a caregiver as well, in multiple ways. You guys, we have a day full of people who care about people. You guys are all doing a fantastic job. Keep doing what you're doing and we will see you back here on Cadre next week. Thank you. Angelo kiddeh, nice to see you. Good morning, Luke. Hope everybody has an amazing day and keep knowing that that invisible work that you're doing makes a difference and you're doing a great job. We'll see you soon.

Bye.