This week's topic was harder for me to read about and talk about in class. My parents divorced when I was about 11, and my mother quickly had a new man in her life. This was hard for me and my siblings to accept, and in some ways it still is.
I have a fairly good relationship with my step sisters, but my mom's husband is not close to me and my siblings at all. This has caused some problems in my household, and the situation is still tense. Being away has given me a new perspective, and the things I've learned in class have helped me to see how the relationships between us have led to this.
Drawing the subsets on the board also helped me to better express why the family relations in blended families can be so strained. All the subsets that form due to blended families, as well as previous relationships between the divorced spouses can add strain. It was good for me to see it drawn on the board; it gave me a different way to express the relationships in my family.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Parenting
I felt like I couldn't take notes fast enough in class this week! I feel like I learned so many things, and some were ideas that I never would have realized on my own.
In talking about parenting styles, I got a new perspective. There were many things that we were encouraged not to do that I hadn't realized were that bad. I'd seen so many parents do those things to their children-like lecturing, or not really taking the time to listen-and I don't think I fully understood the affect it can have on the way the children view their parents.
It can seem so complicated! There were so many things that we should do, and even more things we shouldn't do when parenting. At first it seems overwhelming (and I know it will be at times) but I think the most important thing to remember is to loving when disciplining. Children will need to be disciplined, but if you let love guide you, it will be an effective method of disciplining. When you let love lead, it's hard to go wrong.
In talking about parenting styles, I got a new perspective. There were many things that we were encouraged not to do that I hadn't realized were that bad. I'd seen so many parents do those things to their children-like lecturing, or not really taking the time to listen-and I don't think I fully understood the affect it can have on the way the children view their parents.
It can seem so complicated! There were so many things that we should do, and even more things we shouldn't do when parenting. At first it seems overwhelming (and I know it will be at times) but I think the most important thing to remember is to loving when disciplining. Children will need to be disciplined, but if you let love guide you, it will be an effective method of disciplining. When you let love lead, it's hard to go wrong.
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