...Meet Laura...

Hi! I'm Laura! 

Thank you so much for visiting!

This journey is as terrifying as it is exciting in equal, so I'm very grateful to you for coming along with me!

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I've been a parent for all of my adult life, and a single parent for most of that. What I came to realise, as my children were aging and growing, is that the support; whether external family/friends/professionals (especially in and since covid), and "the village", had gone. 

As my eldest entered the tween and teen years and faced mental health difficulties,  it was hard to find other Mams who could relate to our struggles. As my youngest entered his ASD pathway, we felt isolated there too. Even going to my own mother showed a distinct difference in challenges of raising a different generation of child/young person. I had no one who related to our modern challenges of parenting older kids, or newer challenges that weren't necessarily acknowledged in generations before. 

After a particularly difficult week of managing work demands as a keyworker, meltdowns my youngest experienced, and supporting my eldest in crisis. I met my sister, and friend for coffee, she listened, then simply asked, "And how are you in all of this? This must be tough."

Stumped. I hadn't even considered me in any of this! The fixer, the doer, "the strong one", the heart of the home; Broken. And alone.

Once I reflected on the impact of these challenges on myself, just one human doing her best, I then reflected on how other parents were. Ones without the professional knowledge that  I had gained over the years. One's without the resources and skills and tools I'd learned professionally and learned to implement personally.

How many others were alone and lost in it all?

Something had to change. 

I ploughed on, as we often do,  and tried to continue to work full time as  an assistant psychologist. The 9-5 on top of everything else, was starting to break me, and my family were miserable. They needed me more than ever. And in all of the years and challenges and adversities we'd faced, these moments were our worst.

I simply couldn't do it anymore.  

The system I worked in refused to budge, they wouldn't reduce my contracted hours and with no other option, I had to make a decision. No longer would I break myself or see us struggle in the way we were.

 I chose my family.

I said goodbye to my psychology career and left in June 2024. No income, no solid plan but committed to helping others. For so long I felt completely lost, I remember reading somewhere; "Be the person you needed", so I did.  I created my passion project and started my mission; 

For all of the other lost parents, Welcome to Found.