Everyone has experience with parenting in some form or another. Whether this is as directly as being a parent yourself, observing the cultural norms of a family, or memories of the individuals that you think of as your own parents, we all have events in our past with parenting that have helped us become who we are today. Over the course of the semester while learning about all different types of theories, practices, cultures and concepts of parenting I cannot help but reflect on my own parents and experiences with them. This connection between subjects and events is critical not only to my learning process, but to my ability to apply this outside of the classroom. Understanding these concepts when they are in practice can help me as an educator
…show more content…
This is not only the event I think of most in reference to parenting but was one of the most influential times of my life because I became a victim of child abuse. This experience of abuse has had a tremendous amount of influence on who I am as a person today and how I treat others. Although it was a traumatic time in my childhood it has given me the opportunity to look at many parenting topics in an abstract and personal way. For instance the structure of a blended family can be completely unique and delicate. Acclimating children together after a marriage can be much more difficult than most parents assume. Hostile feelings and role strain was one of the first signs of difficulties in my family which were followed by jealousy from my stepmother towards me as a child. This jealousy started from the two daughter’s insecurity of my relationship with my father and evolved into my stepmother’s physical, emotional and psychosocial abuse. “Some of the girls in these relationships do not feel loved and report more feelings of hostility and lower self-esteem.” (Bigner and Gerhardt, 2014, p. 275) The hostility of my new stepmother along with her and my father’s alcoholism is a prime example of The Psychiatric Model of Family Violence. After three years of living in silence and hiding the abuse from these individuals, my father disowned me and did not speak to me again until I was 18. In hindsight …show more content…
This event connects me to kinship families and custodial grandparents as my parental figures. Following my experience with my stepmother and father I was a fairly quiet and well-behaved child but both of my grandparents took on the authoritative parenting approach. “Grandchildren may also arrive with multiple problems that can be traced to parental problems such as divorce, addiction, and inconsistent parenting behaviors.” (Bigner and Gerhardt, 2014, p. 36) My grandmother went to all of my parent-teacher meetings and any school activity. This was surprising to some of my teachers but gave me a since of pride and I felt loved and important. The parenting concepts my grandmother took on were ones of an authoritative parent who uses “I-messages” and instructed me to do the same. One way as a teacher that I help facilitate other nontraditional parental figures, like my grandparents, is to help them connect to their interests in school subjects and incorporating their cultures into the
This is not only the event I think of most in reference to parenting but was one of the most influential times of my life because I became a victim of child abuse. This experience of abuse has had a tremendous amount of influence on who I am as a person today and how I treat others. Although it was a traumatic time in my childhood it has given me the opportunity to look at many parenting topics in an abstract and personal way. For instance the structure of a blended family can be completely unique and delicate. Acclimating children together after a marriage can be much more difficult than most parents assume. Hostile feelings and role strain was one of the first signs of difficulties in my family which were followed by jealousy from my stepmother towards me as a child. This jealousy started from the two daughter’s insecurity of my relationship with my father and evolved into my stepmother’s physical, emotional and psychosocial abuse. “Some of the girls in these relationships do not feel loved and report more feelings of hostility and lower self-esteem.” (Bigner and Gerhardt, 2014, p. 275) The hostility of my new stepmother along with her and my father’s alcoholism is a prime example of The Psychiatric Model of Family Violence. After three years of living in silence and hiding the abuse from these individuals, my father disowned me and did not speak to me again until I was 18. In hindsight …show more content…
This event connects me to kinship families and custodial grandparents as my parental figures. Following my experience with my stepmother and father I was a fairly quiet and well-behaved child but both of my grandparents took on the authoritative parenting approach. “Grandchildren may also arrive with multiple problems that can be traced to parental problems such as divorce, addiction, and inconsistent parenting behaviors.” (Bigner and Gerhardt, 2014, p. 36) My grandmother went to all of my parent-teacher meetings and any school activity. This was surprising to some of my teachers but gave me a since of pride and I felt loved and important. The parenting concepts my grandmother took on were ones of an authoritative parent who uses “I-messages” and instructed me to do the same. One way as a teacher that I help facilitate other nontraditional parental figures, like my grandparents, is to help them connect to their interests in school subjects and incorporating their cultures into the