Throughout my life I have formed many relationships with other people, some lasting relationships others not so much. Even though not all have lasted, I still valued the time spent with those people. Relationships are important to me, and I think are important to us all as social beings. We need to form relationships with others to share our thoughts, insights, and ideas with. We need to feel connections with other people. I value my relationships, be them personal, professional, or romantic, because they make me feel like I am part of a team.
Obviously the most important relationship to me is that with my husband. He and I have more than a marriage, we have a partnership that is give and take. We know that we have to work together to make our family work and to keep our relationship working. I also have positive relationships with my best friend, and the team of girls I work with. All of my relationships are positive because none of them are one-sided. We communicate and both do our parts to make the relationship work the way we need it to. The girls I work with and I have a partnership in that we have open communication constantly and we all work towards the same goals.
I think a major challenge for me as far as relationships go is that it is hard for me to be open with new people. When developing relationships it is important to be honest and open. Professionally, it is hard for me because there is sometimes negative things I have to bring up that I don't like addressing. However, I know that in order for our relationships to continue to grow and stay strong we have to address even the negatives, not always the positives.
My experiences with relationshpis affect me as an educator because I have to form relationships with my children's families as well. Just as addressing negatives is a problem with my co-workers, it is also a problem with my parents. I hate when I have to inform a parent of something negative. I try to do so in a positve manner, but I still struggle with it. Also being somewhat reserved when forming new relationships affects me forming relationships with my parents as well. I have had to really work hard to overcome this obstacle and treat each of my parents as if I have known them for ever. I have found that this really helps us to establish a good and positve relationship right from the start, which also helps down the road if ever I need to bring them not so good news.
I can definitely relate to not wanting to share negative concerns or suggestions to my friends/family/coworkers. I have always been one to shy away from confrontation; but you're absolutely right in that this is necessary in order for relationships to grow.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Thanks for sharing.
I too can relate. Sharing negative things about a child to their parent has to be one of the worst things about our jobs as early educators. I'm glad that you do your best to try to make it as positive as possible. I used to try the oreo technique. Say something positive, something negative, and then something positive. That was pretty helpful. Now, I'm like you, I just try to make everything sound as positive as possible. We get pretty good at it with years of practice but it is still hard. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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