Katie Brehmer, who juggles working with being a wife and a mother to four boys, is a superhero mom.
Brehmer and her husband Tim have four sons: 10-year-old Robert, 7-year-old Camden, 4-year-old Rudy and 1-year-old Brio. She loves talking about her boys – Robert likes to play baseball, Camden enjoys playing video games, Rudy is nonverbal and inspires his family to spread awareness about autism, and Brio looks up to his older brothers and soaks in everything around him.
“My 4-year-old is nonverbal. He actually is special needs. He was diagnosed just a year ago with autism and a few other disabilities, so we work a lot with him,” Brehmer said.
Brehmer and her husband have worked hard to learn more about autism in order to help Rudy and spread awareness about the condition to others.
“We do everything we can to help him, and we didn’t know anything about autism before he was diagnosed,” she said. “I’ve done so much research since his diagnosis, and it’s kind of been my goal—other than getting him where he needs to be—to spread the word and let people know about autism. It’s a really big thing in our life.”
Brehmer noted her sons improvement.
“We try to be his voice for him and learn as we go. He’s got a long way to go, and he’s made a lot of milestones so we’re very proud of him. Autism is a whole other world so there’s a lot to learn.”
Brehmer currently works for Dyer Nursing & Rehabilitation Center as an activity aid, and she and her family live in Lake Station. With such a busy life, Brehmer and her husband tackle their daily schedules as partners.
“We just take it one day at a time. We kind of go with the flow. We’re a very close little family,” Brehmer said.
Brehmer said that, to her, the best part of being a mom is the unconditional love.
“I can have a rough day and feel like I didn’t defeat any part of what I needed to defeat. Then, my little guys will climb up on my lap and give me a hug and look me in my eyes and give me a little kiss, and that kiss makes it better,” she said. “It’s a house full of love.”
Brehmer said the most challenging part of being a mom is not being able to give her sons the world.
“We do our best with them…just wanting to give them everything we possibly can, and the hardest part would probably be when we have to say no,” she said. “It just stinks, those times when you can’t make something happen.”
Brehmer loves having moments of quality time with her husband and children. One of her favorite ways to spend time with her family is having meals together.
“We like our meal times and have really good dinners together,” she said. “Usually before I go grocery shopping, I’ll kind of see what everybody is wanting for upcoming dinners, and we take turns having our favorite dinners together. That’s our main family time, other than the park or the beach.”
Brehmer and her husband want to give their boys a loving home.
“We want the boys to have a good life,” she said. “We grew up in kind of rough family homes, and so as a married couple – my husband and I adore each other – it’s something we want to pass on to the kids, to show them they have to be strong and push through, and they can do anything. You just really have to work together as a group, it’s basically a team effort of getting through everything.”
She continued, “It’s a lot of love in the house. It’s craziness, but there’s a lot of love.”