Chapter 24 - Jason earns Saturdays
Jason’s return to parenting was slow.
Supervised visits.
Parent coaching.
Therapy.
Medical-appointment participation.
He had to learn something embarrassingly basic:
When a child says something hurts, ask more than once.
Do not outsource every difficult interpretation to the spouse who is home more.
At first he resented supervision.
Then stopped fighting it.
That was progress.
Six months later he earned longer daytime visits.
Then Saturdays without a professional monitor, with me nearby and restrictions in place.
The first Saturday, Leo returned excited.
“Dad let me pick lunch.”
“What?”
“Pancakes.”
“At lunch?”
“Yes.”
Criminal.
Maya showed me a drawing.
All normal.
I remained tense every visit.
My therapist told me:
“Your nervous system does not control the court.”
Annoying.
True.
May you like
Jason needed to become safe based on current behavior.
Not remain permanently frozen in his worst failure.
