Last week Rosa called the Parental Stress Line.  She was crying, and said she was feeling stretched in too many directions, exhausted, and at her wits end.  A single mother of a 3 month old infant boy, born prematurely who cries day and night, she is worried.  Worried about his adjusting to home.  Worried about being a good mother.  Worried about her disabled sister who shares the one bedroom in their tiny apartment.  When the baby cries at night it wakes her sister.  Rosa has tried feeding him and rocking him, walking around with him in her arms.    She wants to take the baby to the other room, but it’s cold at night and the bedroom is warmer.  She feels alone, isolated and anxious.

Written by: Theresa Kelliher

Date: October 2008

When I enrolled in the Family Violence Seminar at Boston University, I was anticipating what most psychology majors have come to expect from a liberal arts course given at a school with more than 18,000 undergrads--a crowded auditorium, full of droopy eyed students trying their best to stay awake during a PowerPoint lecture. That all changed, however, when I learned that in order to pass the course we would have to find an internship relevant to the field. That is when I learned of the opportunity to volunteer on the Parental Stress Line with Parents Helping Parents.