Relationships are important to me because they provide me with strength and wisdom. The people that I have in my life are endless sources of comfort and knowledge for me that make me stronger and smarter every day. Without those people in my life I wouldn’t be any close to what I am now.
My husband and I have a great relationship and partnership. My husband and I have are moments of struggle but we strive to work together and have a partnership. He is my strength and my love in life. He helps me to see the things that I love about people and what I love about myself!
I have a wonderful relationship with my mother (Jimilena), my grandmother (Peggy), my sister (Chelsea), and both my brothers (Justin and Matthew). I am also lucky enough to several really great friends that I love very much.
I think that the biggest thing that makes those relationships positive is that we all have a great respect for one another. We share a common factor of mutual respect and caring for each other. We maintain a positive relationship through communication and effort. I took us a long time to be able to value each other as individuals with the understanding that we might not always agree but that doesn’t mean we don’t love each other. Through lots of understanding and talking we learned how to treat each other in a way that allows us to communicate with respect.
This can be difficult at times because it is hard to set aside what we think is right in order to understand and validate another person. I think also as a person ages they begin to see how there is more to life than just their opinion.
I think the biggest thing that I have learned is that most of the time we just need to stop and listen without thinking about what we are going to say next. If we really take the time to truly listen then we can understand better.
I think that my relationship with my husband is definitely a partnership. We have to work toward common goals that we have as a family. If we don’t function in the mind set of working together in a partnership then we can’t really accomplish very much. My husband and I try to find ways that we can work together and get all of our responsibilities accomplished. If I didn’t have him to help me then the world we are a lot harder to manage. A partnership allows you to meet a goal that you wouldn’t be able to meet without that other person.
I think that experience from my personal life of being an active and reflective member of a relationship allows me to be a better early childhood educator because I am able to form bonds with other more effectively. I also know how maintaining a relationship can be difficult and what I have to do in order to maintain it. I am also able to understand how important to the success of children that relationship can be.
