Like my cohorts in conference hosting, Nancy and Kelly, I am just returning from the whirlwind also known as ATN’s Parenting Traumatized Children Conference. Nearly 13 days ago I left my house and headed to the NACAC conference, returning long enough to pack some new clothes in my suitcase, shower and head to the ATN conference. I believe this is the longest I’ve been away from home anytime in my adult life.

We rolled back into Hotlanta about 4:30 this afternoon, in time to be greeted by rush hour traffic, and to remember how many more people populate our city than the peaceful plains of the Midwest!

I can barely move my fingers to type this blog, but there is so much to tell. So many great people pulled together in one place for one purpose, to help traumatized children and their families. What an awesome bunch of professionals and parents. Nancy has already given you an overview of some of the astounding speakers and presentations of the week. But, frankly, just like last year, I didn’t catch that many presentations and will have to watch the DVDs! (You can do this too, by ordering them here.)

I was deeply struck by the level of caring, concern and commitment of nearly all at the conference – parents and professionals alike. No doubt many of us are raising, or counseling some very challenged, and challenging, children. But what I found amazing was how deeply each of these people (virtually strangers before meeting either in cyberspace or at the conference) cared for each other. And how that caring spread to helping ATN anyway they could as well.

This year we had a number of volunteers assigned to duties, sharing the incredible load of work that putting on a conference requires. But there’s always more to do. And that’s where I found out how caring so many were. There wasn’t a need that I made known, whether it was a last minute fill-in for room monitor or running an errand where someone didn’t immediately volunteer. And it was this willingness to pitch in and make this conference such a team effort that had the fabulous by-product of everyone getting to know everyone else.

I think I literally met every person who attended, and nearly all said to me this was the most supportive and nicest bunch of people they had met. That says a lot considering we are the people who are often subjected to some very “not-nice” things through our children’s behaviors. Shouldn’t we be at least a little surly, exhausted, and ill-tempered?

The other great satisfaction for me was how much Super Dad enjoyed himself. As we were leaving to trek halfway across the US for this conference, he was less than thrilled. And knowing that his major assignment for the week was LuLu supervision, he was actually dreading it. But it wasn’t long until he, too, was infected with the support that just radiates from this conference. (And it didn’t hurt that the Elms had spa facilities and an awesome pool where he and LuLu and many others spent nearly every afternoon.)


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