[Audrey at her homecoming dance 2021]
[Julie, Robin, and Katrina as they film the podcast]
[Brooke in class during SummerTide]
In our PWS University Podcast series, Latham Centers highlights many different perspectives. We’ve been hearing more from the students recently, but we wanted to highlight our exceptional parent community in our latest podcast. Their perspective is invaluable to all of us – but especially families and caregivers of someone with Prader-Willi syndrome.
Julie is Brooke’s mother and Robin is Audrey’s mother, both of whom beam when discussing their daughters. While they acknowledge the challenging moments, they focus on the positives. In our Episode 19 podcast, they discuss the transition to Latham Centers’ SummerTide program, the benefits to their entire family, and what they learned. Topics include the hardships and amazing moments of watching your child with PWS become more independent, and how it affects the entire family unit. Robin says, “She [Audrey] really grew this summer, and I think that a lot of times I did a lot of things for her, and I always knew she could do it […] when she came home, she said, ‘I can do this.”
Julie and Robin tackle the larger picture of being a parent of a teen with PWS, and the path that they’ve taken. They give ideas and supportive words, and Julie comments, “It’s okay to get overwhelmed, it’s okay to need help […] I think it was Patrice [Carroll] that said, ‘we [staff] get to go home at night and you [parents] don’t.’ Any way that you can get supports, take it, and never give up on these kids.”
Don’t miss this amazing podcast, where Robin ends with an uplifting story about Audrey’s recent Homecoming experience, and Julie responds, “I think that this is an incredible story to hear because these are the things that we all hope and wish for.”
