Relationship Reflection

"Human Relationships, and the effects of relationships on relationships, are the building blocks of healthy development" (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000, p. 4)

We have friends and we have people we communicate regularly with. All of us have friends at work, in our neighborhoods, at our schools or in our church. We have less friends than casual acquaintances because close friends are harder to come across. We do find those close friends, people that we share with on a deeper level what’s going on in our lives. Most people don’t have a lot of close friends, but our close friends are very important to us. Some are closer than others.

Relationships can bring us great joy or deep distress. We can’t control what the other person in a relationship does, but we can control what we do. I find it very interesting that The Bible has a great deal to say about relationships with other people. God wants us to grow in our ability to relate to people the way He wants us to. Learning to grow so that our relationships can be everything that God intends them to be is the goal. And for this reason, relationships are important to me. 

 These are my sisters in which I have special relationships with and I love them dearly! I talk to them everyday and we all share very positive relationships with each other. These relationships were rocky at times, because of disagreements that we as sisters had as I am sure all sisters have had. I learned as we grew up, after we had become friends and just not sisters alone, it would take respect to maintain this relationship. Although we were all raised together, we were all so different. So to maintain a healthy relationship, we all had to learn how to respect each others opinions and differences and still love each other through it all.

Me and my boyfriend have a very positive relationship in that we can talk to each other about any and everything. This relationship is very dear to my heart and the great things is having a relationship with someone that you can accept and they accept you for who you are and you guys can be friends. Developing this relationship took work and it included some tough times but when you tough out things together, I believe that you grow and learn from it and develop a stronger love and respect for each other. To maintain  this relationship it takes communication, respect and love. 

Some special characteristics of these relationships that made them partnerships:

1. I've learned that you have to respect the other party in the relationship and not look at their differences as flaws

2. Communication is a key factor in EVERY type ofrelationship

3. Never give up, to fight for your relationship

My experiences with my personal relationships/partnerships directly effects my ability to be an effective early childhood professional in a way that allows me to identify the differences in a child's learning style and accept it instead of viewing it as a flaw and be able to deliver an effective approach to meeting their need. My relationship have taught me how to communicate effectively and be of assistance to the parents of the children in my class and to never give up on the learning ability of a child. It's taught me to never give up on something that us important to me and that would be the importance of educating children.