Robin's Early Childhood Studies Blog: MY HYPOTHETICAL FAMILY SITUATION

Friday, August 3, 2012

MY HYPOTHETICAL FAMILY SITUATION

This week's blog assignment gave us an opportunity to share the hypothetical family situation we each created for the application assignment, to ask questions of our colleagues, and/or share our own thoughts. Below is my hypothetical family situation.

Heather is a thirty-year-old widow and soon to be adoptive single parent. Heather and her late husband were in the process of adopting a two-year-old little girl named Lilly when he was unexpectedly involved in a motor vehicle accident and passed away. Heather and her late husband were working with the Department of Children and Families in their area in order to adopt Lilly. Through a lot of soul searching Heather has decided to continue with the adoption since she has bonded with Lilly and Lilly with her. Heather realizes that she will have to overcome some challenges now and in the future as Lilly has some special needs. Heather has a good job and the insurance benefits left to her by her husband ensure that she is able to financially care for Lilly now and in the future.

The Department of Children and Families has been assigned to Lilly since her birth. Lilly was placed into the custody of the Department of Children and Families six months ago due to severe neglect and her biological mother’s continued substance abuse problems. Lilly was diagnosed with Down syndrome when she was born. Lilly’s mother has since signed away all of her legal and parental rights to Lilly as she decided it was going to be too much work to raise Lilly despite the services she has been offered since Lilly’s birth.

1 comment:

UnknownAugust 5, 2012 at 6:08 PM
Robin,although our post are of hypothetical families, there are so many children in the foster care system who are in need of caring individuals to come to thheir aid.I am loooking foreward to reading more.

something to think about is those of us with healthy children are trully blessed.
Great post
Debra
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PERSONAL CHILDHOOD WEB

When constructing my personal childhood web I needed to remember those who contributed to a feeling of being loved, left me feeling special in some way, and cared about. This was a difficult task as my memories of my childhood, especially from the years of ten and up, were more of surviving this time instead of enjoyment.

Those individuals who did leave a positive impression in some way during the course of my early childhood and middle childhood are: my maternal step-grandfather; my mother; my father; my sister; and my mother's long-term boyfriend and father figure in later years.

My maternal step-grandfather, Monty Crytzer, was the one person in my childhood that I could always count on the keep me laughing and see the fun part of childhood. Even though we are not biologically related, I attribute my sense of humor and how I look at life to him. When times get tough, I always remember how he taught me the importance of being a kid at heart. One specific memory is of him pushing my sister and me around K-Mart in a shopping cart telling us to yell for our mom and grandmother. We had fun, they were totally embarrassed. I have many wonderful memories of my time spent with him.

My mother, Sarah, had her ups and downs as a parent. Most of my memories are not of fun times but to give her credit she did the best she could under the circumstances she found herself in during my later early childhood and middle childhood years. She took care of the basics in order for us to be healthy. She made sure we ate, had clothes, got up for school, etc... It was in the department of showing love that she had a tough time in. I always assumed she loved us but just did not know how to show it.

My father, Eddie, was a great father when we were little whenever he was around (which was not often because of work). He was very interested in technology and I credit him with my interest in all types of gizmos, gadgets, and computers of any type. The times I remember the most fondly were spent in his workroom as a young child being instructed on how to use his Ham Radio setup. Unfortunately, he slowly disappeared out of my life when I was around ten or so.

My sister, Wendy, is older than I am but we always shared a room. We were close later in early childhood and in early middle childhood due to the environment we lived in. Specific memories are painful to remember, but it was and is important that she was there when times were tough. We went through a rough time in later childhood but are now as close as ever.

My mom's long-term boyfriend, Ralph, was and still is a father figure for me. Since the age of fifteen, he has been the person who pretty much took on that role in my life. We never lived in the same house but do live only two houses apart. Aside from taking on some of the roles as father figure, he is a great listener as well as full of information that he loves to share.

There were others who had an impact as I progressed into adulthood but these are the five that came to mind for my early childhood and middle childhood. I do believe we are a product of our environment in so many ways and even though three of the five mentioned are no longer alive, the impact they had on my life is still present today.

Robin's Early Childhood Studies Blog

Friday, August 3, 2012

MY HYPOTHETICAL FAMILY SITUATION

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