Relationship Reflection

My husband is the closest relationship and partnership that I have today.  We met 13 yrs ago in college and married in 2006.  We have a 3 yrs old son together and through our commitment to each other in addition to parenting responsibilities our relationship has evolved from young care free teens into committed parents and business partners.  Along the way the changes in our relationship have been learning experiences of each other.  At one time we were associates who grew in to friends and now we have gone further in having shared legal responsibilities.  We have not always agreed on decision making processes or roles, or even shared the same views.  In our commitment of marriage and family we lave learned new expectations of each other and and discovered the true meaning of compromise and the importance of communication.  In order to grow together we needed to invest in rediscovering each other in alternative ways. Seeing each other in a new light has made me respect his entrepreneur spirit, and he appreciates my concrete thinking style.  I expect as we continue to grow our relationship will continue to change in ways ; but just as we have made adjustments in the past I believe we will continue the same in the future in order to maintain our commitment.  The great thing is that we understand the commonality of the goals we share but realize our views of how to reach the goal may differ.  I believe that this relationship has prepared me for the early child hood field because I have learned what a true partnership means and realized my way is not the only way.  I have learned one of the most effective tools of communication, which is listening to others.  This is imperative with creating partnership with other parents who's opinions are just as valuable as mine.  I plan to use my partnership experience when entering the early childhood field.

My relationship with my mom is the longest of my life.  She gave birth to me at 15yrs and we have been joined at the hip since.  Although very close, at times our closeness feels like a sister connection rather than mom and daughter; but none the less, truly best friends and still to this day.  We have both changed very much over the years and had similar goals of making changes in our lives, such as educational goals to encounter better success.  For example we both were enrolled in school at the same time but thankfully at different institutions.  I believe that my relationship with my mom prepares me for the early child hood field by eliminating presumptions of young mothers.  There are many young mothers today who are challenged by parenthood but I understand that this does not limit their lives or futures.  I understand the challenges and situations young single mothers are faced with and will be more encouraging to them as a support because I have seen the struggle and the glory first hand.