Personal Narrative: Autonomy Vs. Mistrust In Children

As children grow out of the trust versus mistrust stage, they begin to rely less on their caregivers and desire to accomplish tasks on their own. At this stage, which typically occurs from eighteen months to three years, children begin struggling with the crisis of autonomy and how they should feel about desiring it (Swartwood, p. 84). “With appropriate and patient guidance from caregivers” children develop this “sense of autonomy,” but caregivers are often too busy to wait for children to perform tasks on their own (Swartwood, p. 84). This leads children to develop feelings of shame or doubt, for they are discouraged or rushed when performing tasks by themselves. Moreover, during this stage, children develop a sense of self-sufficiency and are faced with resolving the crisis of autonomy verses shame and doubt. …show more content…
During this period of my life, my mother was taking care me and my two younger siblings. This led me to have time to perform tasks on my own while my mother was focused on my siblings. Even though I fall short of remembering specific memories of this stage of my life, but it is obvious that I was afforded “appropriate and patient guidance” from my parents. As an adult, I have a considerable sense of self-sufficiency and I have no feelings of shame or doubt when I act on it (Swartwood, p. 84). Similar to the crisis in the first stage of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, I resolved this crisis in a healthy