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This post has been sponsored by Wealthfront. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Planning for your children’s future
Jude has been so much fun to be around lately. He loves to choose his own clothes, and try on outfits and accessories at every store we go to. When he’s satisfied with an outfit, he checks himself out in the mirror and walks as if he was on the runway. Full of personality, this one!
I don’t know what the future holds right now but if he follows his dreams, he’ll be a fashion designer or a runway model. Mom better start saving! Ever since I became a mom, I’ve felt like time goes by a hundred times faster. Each year that goes by, each birthday that my boys celebrate, I find myself in utter shock. How did that just happen? Didn’t I give birth just yesterday?
This year, it hit me. I need to start planning for the boys’ future, more precisely saving for Jude’s college fund. I’m not a planning-type of person. I’m more of a “let’s wing it” type of mom. It just seems so overwhelming to me to come up with a plan. How much do I need to put aside each month? Do I need to start saving now? Jude is only 3. What are my options? Is it even realistic to start a college fund with our current financial situation?
Wealthfront
I’ve decided to be smart about this and I’m using a useful automatic financial planning service called Wealthfront which has answered all the questions I’ve had and more. I’ve been using it for two weeks and I’m impressed with how intuitive their website is. In setting up my account, and deciding how to invest, I got help every step of the way. I grew up in France so our financial system is a bit different and having all the information I needed in one place made a world of a difference.
It’s really never too early to start thinking about your children’s future. The earlier you start to plan, the easier and more effective it will be. Sometimes, all I need is a little nudge in the right direction to get started, and thanks to Wealthfront, I’m starting the year on a good note with a plan for Jude’s finances. If like me you need a little help to get started, check them out. I feel like a real adult all of a sudden! Stay tuned for a second post soon where I’ll go into more details on how I’ve been using Wealthfront to save for Jude’s future.
This post has been sponsored by Wealthfront. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
![Charlie’s Therapy Center Reported us to CPS.
I debated sharing this for obvious reasons, but I believe this will be helpful for many parents. I also know a lot of you follow me for my honesty and vulnerability, so it didn’t feel right keeping this a secret now that this is over.
A few weeks ago, Charlie pushed a chair up to the counter to access our vitamin cabinet. He grabbed a bottle of children’s melatonin gummies, opened the child-resistant lid, and ate most of the gummies. We called poison control right away, who told us we needn’t worry—what he ate was not dangerous to his health. Still, as parents, we felt terrible.
Because of what happened, we ordered locks the same day and kept the cabinet sealed with several feet of Charlie-proof Gorilla tape along the edge of the door.
A couple of weeks later, Charlie ate a dog treat. Again, we took action right away by moving where we store the dog treats to the pantry that has a lock.
Willy and I take full responsibility for the incidents that happened. We’re good, loving parents, but we’re also busy, flawed humans. Raising a severely autistic child who has no sense of danger means you either need to have eyes on them at all times, or have a highly-secured environment if you’re going to, say, step out to go to the bathroom. It only takes a second for something bad to happen. It’s stressful, but it’s our responsibility. We know it.
We told our team of therapists what had happened because while securing cabinets is our responsibility as parents, we rely on them to help Charlie gain fundamental skills. PICA is common among autistic children, and Charlie doesn’t have the skill-set to discriminate between consuming safe and unsafe items. So we went to our ABA team hoping they could help.
Instead of support from our BCBA, we heard a knocking at the door a few hours later to announce that because of those incidents, she filed a report with CPS. No warning. She didn’t even check to see if we had hidden the dog treats and secured the cabinet. She reported us to the same agency that takes children away from abusive and neglectful parents.
[End on the blog —LINK IN BIO]](http://scontent-lhr3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/e35/c12.0.1416.1416a/s320x320/79520802_109469130385707_1638510406839191628_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lhr3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=103&oh=46e7b48c0ccc174bac50ff122ed860ba&oe=5E7F52DB "Charlie’s Therapy Center Reported us to CPS.
I debated sharing this for obvious reasons, but I believe this will be helpful for many parents. I also know a lot of you follow me for my honesty and vulnerability, so it didn’t feel right keeping this a secret now that this is over.
A few weeks ago, Charlie pushed a chair up to the counter to access our vitamin cabinet. He grabbed a bottle of children’s melatonin gummies, opened the child-resistant lid, and ate most of the gummies. We called poison control right away, who told us we needn’t worry—what he ate was not dangerous to his health. Still, as parents, we felt terrible.
Because of what happened, we ordered locks the same day and kept the cabinet sealed with several feet of Charlie-proof Gorilla tape along the edge of the door.
A couple of weeks later, Charlie ate a dog treat. Again, we took action right away by moving where we store the dog treats to the pantry that has a lock.
Willy and I take full responsibility for the incidents that happened. We’re good, loving parents, but we’re also busy, flawed humans. Raising a severely autistic child who has no sense of danger means you either need to have eyes on them at all times, or have a highly-secured environment if you’re going to, say, step out to go to the bathroom. It only takes a second for something bad to happen. It’s stressful, but it’s our responsibility. We know it.
We told our team of therapists what had happened because while securing cabinets is our responsibility as parents, we rely on them to help Charlie gain fundamental skills. PICA is common among autistic children, and Charlie doesn’t have the skill-set to discriminate between consuming safe and unsafe items. So we went to our ABA team hoping they could help.
Instead of support from our BCBA, we heard a knocking at the door a few hours later to announce that because of those incidents, she filed a report with CPS. No warning. She didn’t even check to see if we had hidden the dog treats and secured the cabinet. She reported us to the same agency that takes children away from abusive and neglectful parents.
[End on the blog —LINK IN BIO]")
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