Week 8 Blog

 Week 8

Is There Love After Baby

Something that was interesting to me is that made me stop and think is that kids do bring a lot of stress to a marriage or a relationship, even though you can be totally aware that a child will be a lot of work. The hardest part is the unexpected events that come about with both parents having different parenting styles, this can be the cause of disagreements in a relationship/marriage. The concept is that when parents are dealing with conflicts with a child it creates problems between a relationship/marriage not because of the child; it's due to unsolved problems in the relationship that at one point were not resolved. This is interesting to me because when my daughter was in kindergarten, she was having a lot of trouble transitioning from preschool and my spouse and I didn't really discuss the best way to approach these issues, after we began to get in line with our parenting styles we learned how to talk through issues regarding our daughter. When other issues would arise with her in school I was thankful that we as a couple learned how to communicate better, I wouldn't want to create a broken home and just give up on my marriage. I wonder if articles like "Is There Love After Baby" were made available to couples expecting a child, would the chances of a broken home be less? In the article I learned the importance of good communication between couples, this is key to working through major life changes relationships go through such as having children, job changes, finances etc. I most want to remember how important my relationship is, not only to me but to my daughter and husband as well. I want be able to talk to my husband about anything that might potentially build up even if it seems unimportant and I hope he will always be open to listen.

Week 7 Blog

Week 7  

  

Young and Middle Adulthood - College Students  

  

I can relate to the topic on "Going to College" best this week. In the reading  it states that 67% of high school graduates go onto to college to better their education. They talk about the fact that many college students average around the age of 18-25yrs old. When I think back to when I was this age, there was no way I was ready for college. During these years I was far too wild and still learning what the world had to offer me. When the book refers to "Returning adult students" I fall into this category. I agree with the reading when it talks about the returning student being more of a problem solver, having more self discipline, and more life experience to bring to the table. Although I have a part time job and a family to support, I feel like I am more mature to take on the task of continuing my education where as I would not have been in the right frame of mind back when I was 18-25yrs old. When I look around the campus here at BTC I feel comfortable because I know I am not alone. Now we are seeing more and more returning students, and the percentage of older students has grown considerably. If I had attended college at the age of 18, I am sure I would have failed miserably, I was not in the right cognitive state of mind for learning or paying attention to what a teacher might have to say. More and more we are seeing advertisements on billboards showing the "Older" student going back to school. I know choosing to attend later in life is not a match for everyone, but I feel that more confident and ready for the challenge for success than I would have at a much younger age. 

Week 6

Week 6

Sleep deprivation for teens

I enjoyed the article “Sleep deprivation may be undermining teen health” by Siri Carpenter. When I look back to when I was a teenager, I remember being one of those kids who tried to survive on 6 to 7 hours a night of sleep. After reading about all the hazards sleep deprivation can cause, it is no wonder I could not stay focused in school. The article talks about when a teen enters puberty they need even more sleep than when they were in elementary school and yet we are finding teenagers getting an average of only 6.5 hours. The research that is now being done is very fascinating, they talk about how experts believed that people didn’t need as much sleep as they grew older from childhood to adulthood, and now they have discovered in the last few decades that kids need considerably more sleep than younger children and adults, they should be getting at least 9 hours of sleep. I learned how they are linking poor grades and accidents to the lack of sleep teens get. If I could research this further I would like to know why our government is not taking a serious look at adjusting the start time for High school students, if we start school for our younger kids later why is it such a huge deal to adjust it for the teens? I understand that some teens now have jobs, and sports to attend too but perhaps we as parents need to take a deeper look into what the end results of pushing our teens can cause. From this reading I most want to remember to find a way to make sure my own daughter gets the sleep she needs to continue to develop her learning abilities, I am going to try to help her get the rest she needs and I will remember now how much sleep teens really need. I hope that by the time she enters High School they will push the start time back a bit. 

Week 5

Week 5 Blog entry: Parenting styles 

This weeks reading was very interesting to me. I learned a lot about the different parenting styles by watching the video on You Tube titled "Parenting Style" along with the text book reading covering the dimensions and styles of parenting. The four parenting styles are Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive and Uninvolved parenting. I discovered by watching the You Tube video that I fall into the category of Authoritative. I identified how my parenting techniques and skills are affecting my daughter as she is growing up. Being an authoritative parent combines showing who is in control, along with showing a lot of  love and having very good communication  with your child. An authoritative parent knows how to have clear rules in place and also the ability to discus why those rules are so important, this gives the child a better understanding of what is expected of them. I would like to read more about this type of parenting style and how it affects older children, I can only imagine it will get a bit tougher as my daughter grows older. If I could discuss this parenting style with the person that came up with the different definitions, I would ask them how they determined that this type of parenting style is shown to be the best way of parenting, and would like to know more about the research behind their thoughts. As I read and studied this type of parenting style I felt proud that I follow this style very heavily with the way I am raising my own daughter.  I find that being a parent has high expectations, how are we as parents supposed to know what's the best way to raise our children without a parents manual. Unfortunately we have to wing it and hope for the best outcome for our children. After reading a bit more about this topic, I feel more confident that I am choosing the best parenting style, I will continue to strive to keep on good handle on this approach as I know I will be more and more challenged as my daughter grows up.