For Parents Carrying More Than Most
Read time: 3 minutes
Welcome to issue #040 of Unicorn Parents. Each week, I share practical insights and reflections to help you build a profitable business without missing the magic at home. If you’re serious about winning at work while raising great kids, you’ve come to the right place. This is a community built for ambitious parents who want both.
Last night I had a dream.
It was more of a nightmare.
My eldest son got hurt.
I was devastated. I woke up at 4 am in a cold sweat and couldn’t fall back asleep.
We don’t want our kids to get hurt.
Not ever.
Not even in our sleep.
Which made me think:
How painful must it be for parents whose fear doesn’t end when they wake up?
For parents raising children with special needs—where worry isn’t occasional or hypothetical, but constant. Where vigilance doesn’t turn off. Where love is paired daily with uncertainty, advocacy, and exhaustion.
Some of our closest family friends are raising children with special needs. We’ve had front-row seats to both the beauty and the burden—the joy, the fatigue, the courage it takes to show up day after day without knowing what tomorrow will bring.
The Weight Most People Never See
There’s a quiet weight that comes with this kind of parenting.
It’s not just the appointments, therapies, or paperwork.
It’s the background scan that never stops.
Will my child be safe today?
Will they be understood?
Will the world be kind—or careless?
Many of these parents are also working full-time, raising other children, caring for aging parents, holding marriages together, and managing finances under strain.
They do this without applause.
Often without understanding.
Sometimes without help.
If that’s you, let me say this clearly:
You are not weak for feeling tired.
You are not failing because this feels heavy.
You are not lacking faith because you feel overwhelmed.
Love under load is still love.
In fact, it may be one of the purest forms of it.
A Word for the Rest of Us
There’s also something for those of us standing nearby.
Kindness is not the easier option.
It takes just as much strength to be kind as it does to be cruel.
Cruelty is reactive.
Kindness is intentional.
So if both require effort, why not choose the one that heals?
At the church I attend, there’s a three-year-old girl with special needs. Some people grow frustrated by her non-compliance. Not out of malice; out of misunderstanding.
But when I really pay attention, it’s not the child I notice most.
It’s her parents.
The quiet vigilance.
The constant readiness to step in.
The look that says, Please be patient. We’re doing our best.
No one in that room is carrying more weight than they are.
A gentle word.
An extra moment of patience.
An offered hand instead of a tightened jaw.
These are not small gestures.
They are acts of mercy.
The world can be a kinder place, if we decide to make it one family at a time.
The Tribe That Matters Most
There are many tribes in the modern world.
As entrepreneurs and professionals, we’re surrounded by them.
The runners.
The creators.
The singers.
The dancers.
The investors.
The operators.
Tribes built around performance and identity.
But parenting may be the most consequential tribe of all.
I find myself resonating with other parents faster (and more deeply) than with another investor in my own city. Not because we share ambition, but because we share exposure.
Parenting reveals us.
It brings out our strengths and our weaknesses.
Our patience and our impatience.
Our tenderness and our temper.
The beautiful parts of us, and the parts we’d rather keep hidden.
There’s no résumé here.
No posturing.
Only love under pressure.
And when a family is parenting under extra weight (e.g., special needs, chronic illness, long uncertainty), that tribe becomes even more sacred.
To the Parents Carrying More Than Most
You are doing unseen, sacred work.
Your attentiveness matters.
Your patience matters.
Your presence matters…even on the days when it feels like you’re barely holding things together.
And if today feels heavy, that doesn’t mean you’re losing.
It means you care.
And that care (quiet, relentless, and real) is shaping your child in ways the world may never fully measure.
You’re not alone.
Not here.
Not in this community.
Not in the long night hours when fear visits uninvited.
With respect and solidarity,
Unicorn Parents