Melissa Fisher Goldman, LCSW Therapy

01/04/2025

I believe animals can grieve. It can be such an organic animalistic response to loss. I’m interested in your thoughts on this video and this topic. Please leave comments below!

https://www.facebook.com/HappilyOfficial/videos/1338472357152048/?fs=e&mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e

09/17/2023

Such bright advice from a young shining star. https://fb.watch/n6iPgVNEsF/?mibextid=K8Wfd2

08/07/2023

Forever reminded 💕

07/12/2023

Something many people aren’t aware of. Let’s take action

✨ People with disabilities should have the right to marry without losing their income, benefits, or health insurance.

⭐️ In many countries, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, people with disabilities are discouraged from getting married or are pushed to divorce in order to get or maintain their income, benefits, and health insurance.

📍 In the United States specifically, it's because benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid are needs-based and focus on current assets and income. When someone marries someone not in those programs, their partner's assets and income are combined with theirs. It is because of the combined income that many married people with disabilities lose their SSI and Medicaid benefits. For people with disabilities who are already married, many have been forced to divorce and live separately in order to keep benefits that they need to survive.

⭐️ People with disabilities shouldn't be forced to choose between the benefits they need to survive and their partners. 🌙

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Digital illustration of a woman with brown skin and curly black hair. She is disabled and is sitting in a grey wheelchair looking at the viewer. The woman is wearing a cream color linen dress, pink and blue flower print go-go boots, pink and blue pom pom earrings. There's a text bubble that reads, ' people with disabilities STILL do not have marriage equality'

06/12/2023

Such a great reminder 💕

“A few days ago while I was at the pool I saw a young mom and her little daughter walk into the pool area dressed in very pretty coordinated swimsuits.

The mom, with her perfect loose curls tied in a coordinated tape, spent the first few minutes talking aloud on her phone to a friend while her daughter stood waiting to get into the pool.

Mom ended the phone call and proceeded to scatter pool toys and sunscreen on a matching towel.

Then, after finding the right angle and the right light, mom took out her tripod and took a few selfies with her daughter.

Little girl asked to get in the pool
Mom said to wait and then posed her daughter in front of the pool, then entering the pool and then back out of the pool.

Little girl smiled big and said cheese like she had done it a million times. So Mama told her she could play now.

The little one swam for a couple of minutes.

Mom called a friend from her phone and started another conversation while her little girl asked politely and repeatedly:

“Mom, can you come to the water with me please?”

She was ignored.

"Mommy, will you come to play with me?" She asked 4 more times.

Mom looked at her, but never hung up the phone. After 10 minutes mom finished her call, picked up the sunscreen that never applied, the water toys that never touched the water, and then her daughter and left the pool.

I sat there thinking about what I had witnessed for a while later. I imagined the photos she took being perfectly edited and posted on social media with a caption like "Pool time with my girl!

Somewhere another mom will be at home with her kids, the house a mess because of her game, her hair rebellious for Mother's Day and her dirty laundry with saliva or peanut butter.

She's going to be tired because she spent the day cooking, caring, cleaning and playing with her kids.

She's going to look at that picture and compare herself to the perfect mom in the pool.

Guilt will whisper in your ear:
"You're not good enough... "
"You don't look like that mom in the pool... "
“You don’t have money to buy expensive swimsuits like that and you don’t have time to make memories like her”... and that young mom is going to believe it. She's going to feel like a failure. She'll never know that how she spent her time that day, was far better in the eyes of her children than that "perfect mom" in the pool.

What we see on social media is not always real.

Sometimes and often it's a complete set up.

It's staged and filtered, it's fake.

Sometimes we see absolutely wonderful vacation photos and beautiful homes and freshly-styled hair, but it's just ONE moment.

It's the best moment of a whole day spent like ours.

Working, cleaning and putting up the mess...

Mama don't compare yourself.
You are enough!
You're amazing and the best part is, you're REAL!
Your dirty beach, your messy house and your happy children are real and are proof that you are doing it right!”

- ✍🏼 Jen Flint