Relationship Reflection

Social contact is a very essential part of human development and has direct effects on our health and emotional well-being.  Each relationship/partnership for me is very different.  Each of these relationships is different because of the role I play in each of the relationships.  As most of us do, I wear many hats (i.e. mom, sister, friend, aunt, advocate, child care provider, Miss Robin to the children I take care of).  The list is quite extensive.

To my own children I am mom.  I am also mom to most of the exchange students I have hosted over the years. In regards to my sister’s children, I am “Auntie the greatest aunt in the world.”  Some relationships take longer to develop, others are pretty much instantaneous.  I have so many positive relationships that I do not know where I would even begin.  I do believe that each relationship is unique and the older I get the more I understand the special aspects of each relationship/partnership. 

Each of my relationships is based on different bonds with each specific individual.  Some bonds are stronger than others but the bonds are there just the same.  By understanding these differences, it makes me a more effective early childhood professional.

The memory that really seems to belong under this heading is an incident after my husband was killed.  We were in the middle of remodeling the kitchen, dining room, and hallway of our home.  We had just finished plastering two days prior to his accident and all of our friends and even those I did not know all came to help finish the job.  In some ways I think it was a blessing for them as it gave them something to do while grieving.  I always tell people that I may have lost my husband but I gained about 500 of the best big/little brothers and sisters I could ever ask for.  During this time the courts decided that I needed to prove myself capable of finishing raising our three children.  When the lawyer the courts appointed came out to the house and was looking over all my receipts (I had to prove where all monies had been spent since the day of the accident) he looked at the Home Depot, etc… receipts and asked why there were so many and I explained the situation.  He then asked me where the receipts were for the contractor and other workers.  I told him there were none because all the work was completed by friends.  He looked at me and said no one has friends that good.  I replied “Yes I do, and I am very lucky to have them all.”  In one way that conversation saddened me as it made me realize even though I was grieving, how lucky in so many ways I still was.  Here was this lawyer who could not even imagine having friends as great as mine.