The two most important relationships I have right now are the one with my guy and my daughter. The relationship I have with my mother influences the relationship I'm building with my daughter. My mother allowed us to make mistakes and explore the world in result I am not an overbearing mother to my daughter. I understand the importance of giving a child space. The relationship I have with my father as well as the relationship between my mother and father had a major impact on the relationship I have with my guy. I looked to my mother to determine the role and duties of a woman. I am a "daddy's girl", my guy had similar characteristics that reminded of my dad which drew me to him.
Communication is a vital part of maintaining each relationship I have. I have always be able to talk to my dad about anything under the sun without feeling judge it was very important to have this same feeling with my guy. My mother has always been a great listener and I was her talkative child so the two worked well together. My mother always told me I need to listen as much as I talk (ha,ha).
Although communication is important a challenge I face is recognizing it's not what I say but how I say it. When expressing myself I can get emotional, loud and even shut down. Now that I am a mother and my child has not reach the stage of expressing herself verbal I have to control those emotions, develop patience and learn to communicate in other ways beyond vocal.
A special characteristics that make these partnership work is being genuine and love. The sincerity is obvious and without love these partnership would no longer exist.
These relationships impact my work as an effective early childhood educator because I view each student as my own. I also recall how I wanted to be talked to and how sometimes I just wanted someone to listen to me just like students today.
