My Connections to Play

"If I get to pick what I want to do, then it's play...if someone else tells me that I have to do it, then it's work."
-Patricia Nourot

"The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on street that we reluctantly shared with traffic."
-Bill Cosby

While I was growing up, I had some health problems and as a result, I do not have very many memories of my childhood.  However, I do remember that my friends and I lived close together and we would walk to each others houses to play.  Back then, we could play in the neighborhood without supervision and our parents encouraged us to play.  Unfortunately, children cannot play these days without supervision and due to overcrowding, there are not many places for children to play. Additionally, children do not have to entertain themselves like we did, because of the numerous forms of media that are available to them.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are important to me because I think that it is important to have positive people in my life who love and support me. Having these relationships also makes me a happier person.

My husband: I am very fortunate to have a great relationship with my husband; he is my best friend. We have been together for 15 years and married for 11 years. Our relationship is not perfect but we have worked very hard to make it great. In the beginning of our relationship, there was a lot of miscommunication but we learned to communicate our feelings and our wants and needs. This relationship is positive because we trust, respect, and support each other. We know how to compromise and we have learned that sometimes we just have to agree to disagree.

My Mom: Mother-daughter relationships can be very complicated.  My mom and I have had issues in our relationship but we have resolved them by talking about them and compromising. I know that my mother loves me and that she would do anything for me. I can depend on her and trust her. Even though we live far away we make an effort to maintain our relationship by talking on the phone every week and seeing each other as often as possible.

The biggest challenges that I have experienced in developing and maintaining relationships have been trust issues and respect.  My sister & I are not close for this reason.  From experience, I have learned that I cannot trust her if I confide in her. Our biggest issue, however, is respect.  My sister is 5 years older than me and she still thinks that she can tell me what to do and that I should do it. She doesn't respect the fact that it is my life and as an adult, I need to make my own decisions, whether she agrees with them or not.  There have been many times that she has made decisions about her own life that I completely disagreed with, but I respected that it was her decision to make.  Trust has also been a challenge in a lot of my friendships.  In the past, I had several friends that I thought I could trust but I found out otherwise.

I consider my relationship with my husband a partnership.  We always make all of our major decisions, which affect both of us, together.   If I have to make a personal decision, that doesn't affect him, I still talk to him about it because I want to know his opinion & because he's good at making me see other points of view or other possibilities (not one of my strengths).

My relationship experiences may impact my work as an effective early childhood professional and my ability to be an active contributor because they have taught me about effective communication, compromising, and respect.  I am able to respectfully communicate with parents and my co-workers.  Furthermore, I know that it is sometimes necessary to compromise which is sometimes necessary in the workplace.